Measure Q, Measure Y, Measure NN, and the public trust

So, the Mayor sent an almost comically whiny letter (PDF) to the Council last week explaining why he decided to cancel December’s police academy. First, he seems shocked to learn that Measure Y isn’t just a bottomless pit of money he can use for whatever he wants forever:

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2007 City Crime Rankings Released

And Oakland moves down a slot, to number five on the list!

Doubtlessly, this news will result in the same litany of excuses from the Mayor and Police Chief that we heard last year about how the rankings (PDF) aren’t accurate and besides, most of the good citizens of Oakland can rest easy at night, safe and sound, because crime isn’t a problem in their neighborhood. Remember this gem from last year: Read more

Since Dellums can’t do his job, the Council needs to do it for him

Former Planning Commissioner Suzie Lee’s term expired on May 5, 2008. May 5th. She has still not been replaced. We have now gone 199 days without a Planning Commissioner! It’s completely unacceptable.

When a seat on a City Board or Commission opens up (especially a really important body like the Planning Commission), a good Mayor would fill the seat immediately. According to our City Charter, the Mayor is supposed to nominate a candidate for the seat within 90 days of the vacancy. If he doesn’t, then the Council can fill the vacancy on their own. Read more

OPD at 837 doesn’t mean what Dellums seems to think it means

So, if you read the newspaper, it probably did not escape your notice that the Oakland Police Department has now exceeded its staffing requirement of 803 officers, and is, in fact, now at its highest level of staffing in history, with a total of 837 officers.

When you read these stories, you may have noticed two claims from Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums that probably made you feel a little better about the direction Oakland’s been heading. Read more

Don Perata for Oakland Mayor?

How funny, I was just talking about this last night. I’m not particularly interested in speculating on who’s going to be Mayor two years from now - I’d rather focus on what’s happening in the City right now. But I’m sure that Chip Johnson’s column today about Don Perata, barring indictment, running for Mayor of Oakland in 2010 will get some of my readers fired up, so rather than having the issue clutter up the comments section of an unrelated post, I’ll give you guys a space to duke it out. Read more

Budget debate over, for now.

So the Council passed their budget adjustment last night and we get to stop worrying about it for a while. Well, for a little while, anyway. As time goes on and we either do or don’t receive the revenue we budgeted for, the Finance & Management Committee will have to make monthly adjustments. Read more

Save the arts? At the expense of what, exactly?

So, tonight the City Council hopes to finally pass their second budget for the year and close the $42 million deficit hanging over our heads. The biggest point of contention tonight is likely to be suspension of the Cultural Arts funding program.

What program, you ask? Here’s the deal. Every year, we award grants to roughly 70 non-profits and individual artists to, well, make art. Read more

We’ll be keeping the park rangers after all

So, it looks like the City won’t be shutting down on Fridays after all. (Or closing parks!) You may recall that when Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums submitted his budget proposal a couple of weeks ago, he left a $10 million deficit and told the Council to figure out how to close it (offering them three options). Subsequently, Dellums explained that he actually didn’t want the Council to make their own decision, and instead expected to save the money by closing the City every Friday, cutting the pay of every non-sworn employee by 20%. Read more

Can I be on the Housing Authority Board, too?

The Oakland Housing Authority, much like the Port, AC Transit, and East Bay MUD, doesn’t receive anywhere near the amount of media attention it deserves. Read more

What Measure Q? More broken promises from the City of Oakland.

So the biggest point of protest during the public comment period of Tuesday’s budget meeting was the proposed elimination of the Library’s Second Start Adult Literacy Program. The Second Start people played the pity card big time, Read more

Dellums on the budget

So, last night, the City Council had its first special budget workshop of this year’s second round of budget adjustments. The first round took place last spring, and culminated in the Council approving a mid-cycle budget with $15 million in cuts. Read more

Mayor’s new budget proposal now available

You can view it here (PDF). I haven’t had a chance to digest the whole thing yet, so I’m going to hold off on commenting until I do, but here’s the basic plan, as outlined in the letter (PDF) the Mayor sent to city staff: Read more

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