Oakland City Council member Desley Brooks is a runaway train that needs to be derailed before she does irreparable harm.

Her most recent collision — with 72-year-old former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown, who says Brooks assaulted her at a downtown restaurant on Oct. 30 — is only the latest misstep in a political career defined by controversy, confrontation and rage.

The alleged target of Brooks’ ire is an elderly woman who runs a county jobs program and who, because of her radical past, holds celebrity status in Oakland. But anybody could run afoul of Brooks, whose public demeanor can be described in two ways: angry and angrier.

In a civil complaint filed with the Oakland city attorney’s office last week in which she is asking for at least $10,000 from the city, Brown says that Brooks, 54, assaulted her at a gathering to discuss affordable housing issues. A heavily redacted police report says that “hands, feet, teeth, etc.” may have been used in the alleged assault, which it calls a misdemeanor.

Neither Brooks nor Brown has responded to interview requests.

If Brooks’ history on the council provides any insight into how this matter will be resolved, I wouldn’t count her out yet.

In a sad commentary on the lack of will among Brooks’ colleagues and on the poor ethical standards of Oakland city government, Brooks has managed to dodge every bullet aimed at her during her 13 years in office. She has even turned the council chambers into her own three-ring circus.

In 2007, a month after the City Council approved the $800,000 purchase of a building in the 5800 block of International Boulevard that it wanted as a teen center, Brooks sent an e-mail to staff asking, “When can I have the keys?” according to a 2013 grand jury report on the project.

“From that moment forward, it was very clear that the council member exerted control over nearly every element of the project, making demands of staff from multiple city departments at all levels,” the report said.

According to the grand jury, Brooks ignored a council decision to delay renovating the building and entered into construction contracts with builders on her own in 2010. She also blew off numerous requests by the grand jury to testify.

When her council colleagues attempted to censure her in 2013 for her misdeeds, Brooks packed the room with supporters. Before the night was over, she had persuaded her witless council colleagues to vote to censure themselves.

Brooks goes through council aides the way Wimpy goes through hamburgers. And when her staff has abandoned her, she has used taxpayer money meant for their salaries to support her favorite political groups and nonprofits — including the group that lobbied former Rep. Ron Dellums to run for mayor in 2006, according to city documents cited in The Chronicle in 2006.

Brooks has run roughshod over and thumbed her nose at every institution that has ever attempted to rein her in, starting with city administrators, the City Auditor’s Office and the Alameda County grand jury. She also brought a $1 million libel lawsuit against The Chronicle and me in 2008. A court dismissed her claim a year later, a decision upheld on appeal.

Along the way, she’s managed to polarize most of her colleagues on the City Council — or simply intimidate them into silence. Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney is a polite, cultured person. Yet during a recent council meeting, Brooks called her a “hanky-head.” What do you know? A racial insult from the city’s Queen of Racial Equality. Brooks has been a supporter of minority contracts, Occupy Oakland and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brooks’ actions, antics and antisocial behavior have long been a public embarrassment to Oakland — and she’s now become a public liability.

I don’t know if Brown has a legitimate legal claim to city resources as a result of Brooks’ actions, but make no mistake: The city — and the voters — are ultimately responsible for this abuse of government representation.

Brooks is a monster created by the city’s lack of administrative controls; poor ethical standards; and downright absurd, race-based political environment that lets her survive.

Given her history and the city’s unwillingness — or inability — to hold her accountable, it’s going to take a lot more than a misdemeanor assault charge — or a conviction — to slow that train down.

It’s time for the taxpayer-funded Oakland Public Ethics Commission and the city attorney to speak up. At the very least, the Oakland City Council should give censure another try to let the public know it “gets it” and that such behavior by an elected official is unacceptable.

Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. His column runs Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chjohnson