Who is Ursula Jones Dickson, Alameda County’s next district attorney?

Ursula Jones Dickson, Alameda County Superior Court judge, greets supporters after the county Board of Supervisors appointed her to be the next district attorney. Credit: Roselyn Romero

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors appointed Ursula Jones Dickson to be the next district attorney at a meeting Tuesday night. Dickson will replace District Attorney Pamela Price, who was recalled by 63% of voters in November.

In a two-minute statement before the board’s vote, Dickson said she won’t be beholden to any political organization or cause.

“The DA has a specific job to do,” she said. “That job, from the beginning to the end … is to do what’s right for the community, protect public safety and lift up the victims.”

Dickson will be sworn in at the next Board of Supervisors meeting on Feb. 4 and will serve through November 2026, when the county will elect a DA for the rest of the term, which ends in 2028.

Fifteen people applied for the DA’s job, and the Board of Supervisors selected and interviewed seven finalists.

In addition to Dickson, Contra Costa County Assistant District Attorney Annie Esposito, and California Chief Deputy Attorney General Venus Johnson, the other finalists were LaTricia Louis, Alameda County deputy counsel; Elgin Lowe, Alameda County senior deputy district attorney; Yibin Shen, Alameda city attorney; and Jimmie Wilson, Alameda County chief of prosecutions.

Who is Judge Ursula Jones Dickson?

An Oakland resident since 2001, Dickson has been an Alameda County Superior Court judge for a dozen years. She was appointed to the bench by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013 and was reelected twice, in 2016 and 2022, though she ran unopposed both times.

Before serving as a judge, she was a deputy district attorney for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for 15 years, during which she handled misdemeanor, felony, and juvenile cases, she wrote in her application for the DA post.

Dickson has held multiple leadership roles within the county court system, including as the presiding judge of the Alameda County Juvenile Court from 2019 to 2022. She served as chair of the Alameda County Superior Court Juvenile Committee and was a member of the Collaborative Court, Access, and Family Treatment Court committees.

In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors, Dickson said she hopes to rebuild morale within the DA’s office and “tamper down” the politicization of the role. She said her existing relationships with prosecutors in the DA’s office, the similarities between her role as a judge and that of DA, and her being the “only candidate who has run an organization and had the requisite experience as a DA” make her uniquely qualified.

“I am committed to rebuilding trust within the office and with the community, fostering a positive and collaborative relationship with law enforcement and the courts, and delivering effective and equitable justice for all,” she wrote in her application.

Dickson graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and earned her juris doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She is a member of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, California Judges Association, NAACP, and judicial section of the California Association of Black Lawyers, according to her curriculum vitae.

Following her appointment Tuesday evening, Dickson told reporters that on the first day of her term as DA, she wants to assess the level of training that prosecutors have or need, rebuild the victim-witness assistance program, strengthen the collaborative courts, and meet with murder victims’ families to discuss the status of their cases.

“As District Attorney, I will prioritize public safety and victim rights,” Dickson wrote in her application. “I will conduct a comprehensive review of the office’s budget, training programs, and internal dynamics to foster a collaborative and efficient work environment.”

Her supporters include law enforcement officials, district attorneys, advocates for crime victims and their families, and Save Alameda for Everyone, or SAFE, the political committee that spearheaded the recall effort against Price. Dickson was one of two candidates endorsed by SAFE.

Three county supervisors voted for Dickson

Carl Chan with Save Alameda for Everyone addresses the Alameda County Board of Supervisors during public comment on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Credit: Roselyn Romero

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors prefaced their deliberations by emphasizing how difficult the selection process had been.

“I consider this decision to be the toughest, if not one of the top two or three, in my 22 years of elected service,” said David Haubert, Alameda County supervisor for District 1 and president of the Board of Supervisors.

During the supervisors’ deliberations, Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley said he believed Dickson and Johnson were the most qualified for the job due to their experience as veteran prosecutors.

“They’re both women of integrity, they’re both strong individuals, and they’re not bought or sold by anyone,” Miley said.

District 3 Supervisor Lena Tam also expressed her support for Dickson, though her first choice for DA was Esposito, in part due to her unique background as a Taiwanese immigrant.

“It’s what we in the Asian American community call the ‘bamboo ceiling’ that prevents Asian Americans — and especially Asian American females — from entering management positions,” said Tam, who also serves as the vice president of the county Board of Supervisors.

In all three rounds of voting, District 5 Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas voted exclusively for Johnson, chief deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice.

Bas praised Johnson’s legal and managerial experience and her high-profile endorsements, including from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Assemblymember Mia Bonta, Rep. Lateefah Simon, and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.

“When she answered my questionnaire about what public safety is … [Johnson] said, quote, ‘Every member of our community has a right to feel safe. Our job is to ensure that happens,’” Bas said. “I think she has clarity on what this position is.”

The board’s selection process involved three rounds of voting. During the first round, each supervisor voted for as many as two candidates, with the top three candidates advancing to the second round. That process was then repeated during the second round. For the final round, each supervisor voted for one candidate.

In the third round, Haubert, Elisa Márquez, and Miley cemented Dickson’s victory. Tam voted for Esposito, while Bas voted for Johnson.

Immediately after the supervisors’ votes were tallied, homicide victims’ family members in the audience applauded and cheered for Dickson. Some shed tears of joy as they held up signs with their deceased loved ones’ faces. One sign read, “We love you JJ,” referring to John “JJ” Creech Jr., a 20-year-old Hayward resident who died of gun violence in 2019.

Family members of John “JJ” Creech Jr., a 20-year-old Hayward resident who died of gun violence in 2019, hold up signs during the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Credit: Roselyn Romero

The Board of Supervisors listened to about two and a half hours of comments from residents — including activists, former and current attorneys, business owners, and family members of homicide victims — before hearing candidate statements and voting.

In his comments to the board, Jason Quinn, a deputy district attorney in the DA’s office and president of the Alameda County Prosecutors Association, urged supervisors to pick a candidate who can re-energize prosecutors. Since 2023, he said, workplace morale “has not gotten better.”

“We are defeated, we feel unappreciated, and we’re having a difficult time within ourselves to focus on a mission of serving the public,” Quinn said. “What you’re about to do is pick a leader that has to realign the hearts and the minds of prosecutors to get back to work on a single mission.”

Brenda Grisham, SAFE’s leader and a longtime advocate for homicide victims’ families, said that regardless of the outcome, she will work with the winner to ensure families get justice. However, she reiterated her support for Esposito and Dickson.

“We want to do something different in Alameda County and show that we can work together,” Grisham told the supervisors.

Many speakers affiliated with SAFE compared Johnson to Price and implored the supervisors to reject her.

Jason Wentz, president of the Bay Area chapter of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, a policy lobbying group, said “[Alameda County] does not need someone who’s backed by politicians who do not support Proposition 36, which was passed overwhelmingly by the voters of the state and county.”

Prop. 36, which California voters approved in November, toughens penalties for certain drug and property crimes. Opponents of Prop. 36 argued that it brings California back to the era of mass incarceration, which disproportionately impacted Black and Latino men and resulted in overcrowding within the California prison system.

Organizers with the Fruitvale-based nonprofit Restore Oakland Inc., which works to promote restorative justice and community healing and campaigned against Prop. 36, said that their top choice for DA was Johnson because of her commitment to addressing the root causes of violence.

“I worry about any candidate who’s endorsed by all these law enforcement agencies when we think about families and people who are impacted by police violence,” said Kari Malkki, the healing justice program manager at Restore Oakland Inc. “But Judge Dickson has made it clear that she will be judicious in her application of Prop. 36 and not just think that the people who are shouting out a tough-on-crime approach are the most reasonable.”

Community members listen to public comments before the county Board of Supervisors vote for the next district attorney on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Credit: Roselyn Romero

In response to residents’ concerns about her high-profile endorsements, Johnson said she is not a puppet or pawn of any politician.

“I am an East Oakland girl who is the daughter of an immigrant mother and a correctional officer who’s sitting here today very proud of his daughter,” she said. “I am the balance and the person you’ve been looking for.”

Some residents said that the blame on former DA Price for the county’s public safety woes was largely misplaced and that it’s wrong to compare Johnson, or any other candidate, to Price.

“The district attorney controls how much crime there is about as much as the sheriff does, but you don’t hear SAFE calling for the recall of the sheriff or police chiefs,” said Jonathan Lindsay-Poland, an activist and researcher who spoke in favor of Elgin Lowe, senior deputy district attorney for Alameda County.

“I’m concerned by the unsupported attacks on Ms. Johnson implying that she’s aligned with Pamela Price and criticizing her for having the endorsement of her employer,” said Leslie Rose, a Berkeley resident and retired criminal law professor at Golden Gate University.

In an interview before the Board of Supervisors meeting, Yoel Haile, criminal justice program director for the ACLU of Northern California, said that while the ACLU does not make endorsements for elected or appointed candidates, he hopes the next DA will prioritize prevention and treatment for people with mental illness and addiction, rather than criminalizing poverty and homelessness.

“It’s up to all of us to hold the DA accountable to try and minimize the harms of Prop. 36 and make sure the DA is using their discretion to not utilize Prop. 36 charging powers,” Haile said.