Thank you, Ignacio! Thank you, Jane Brunner!

5 Responses to “Thank you, Ignacio! Thank you, Jane Brunner!”

1. 1
   Charles Pine Says:
   June 26th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

   Yes, De La Fuente insisted on a piece of paper called performance standards in the LLAD tax hike package. Turns out the City already has standards on paper from 1979 (www.orpn.org/LLAD9.htm). So real people repeated their 2006 verdict: no LLAD tax increase. This year, though, the council, the Port, and the school district rigged the vote to pass the increase ( http://www.orpn.org/LLAD_B05.htm).

   A Son of Measure Y tax hike on the November ballot is not acceptable from this city government, with or without more pieces of paper. The City has violated one provision of Measure Y after another. Let the mayor and council give budget priority to more police, and let the bureaucrats follow through. The mayor demanded a salary hike as soon as he came into office, not after performing to earn it. Now the officials think they can demand a tax hike up front, too? Hah.

2. 2
   len raphael Says:
   June 29th, 2008 at 12:52 am

   give me a break, council members calling for gps and reporting systems like bratton used in nyc as a panacea for oakland crime is fantasy. you don’t fix the mismanagement of opd and the lack of political leadershipl to fund and and support effective aggressive policing by buying gadgets or implementing any particular information systems.

   all the information systems and real time tracking systems in the world ain’t gonna make up for a city council and mayor that created much of the conditions that led to the current situation by freezing cop hiring since 2002, supporting the worst possible implementation of the Riders settlement, and accepting abysmal performance of the police chief.

   yeah, one could only hope that brunner read the writing on the wall and she’ll stop rubber stamping every pork barrel patronage contract that comes up in return for her tree planting and school playground financing. but my hunch is that after the current media attention on oakland govt dies down, it wb business as usual in oakland government unless residents come together in a non partisan reform movement to overhaul Oakland govt.

   -len raphael

3. 3
   V Smoothe Says:
   June 29th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

   Len –

   I don’t really think that’s fair. Nobody is saying that CompStat and GPS are a panacea – they’re saying that we should emulate best practices from cities that have been successful in reducing crime. If the problem with OPD is two-fold, poor management and not using modern crime-fighting technologies, then the appropriate solution is to deal with both issues, not ignore the latter.

   In any case, I just don’t think it’s productive to endlessly bash the Council for the hiring freeze. Such criticism is appropriate at times, say during election season, as it speaks to the incumbent’s record and decision-making skills. But now that the decision has been made, we’re stuck with the Council we have, and I think that all we can do is look at their decisions going forward. I don’t disagree that the hiring freeze or the way the Riders settlement was implemented were mistakes, but what good does it do to complain about them now? We just have to do the best we can with what we’re stuck with, and I personally think that doing so involves CompStat and GPS.

   In any case, the discussion is rather academic, since I can’t imagine Oakland voters would say yes to the tax increase.

4. 4
   len raphael Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm

   the very fact that city council members are micro managing the opd down to the level of recommending a particular piece of hardware gets to the crux of the mismanagement of the opd and lack of effective oversight of the opd’s management by the council.

   most participants on this blog know that of course widgets aren’t panaceas, but listen to the city council techno illiterati gush over gps units: they really do believe they’re panaceas. never underestimate the power of techno illiterates to believe in salvation by technology. and compstat? except for bratton’s most ardent supporters of years ago in NYC, it seemed to me that compstat was an adaptation and compilation of several approaches/techniques converted from private industry operations.

   and oakland has a dismal record of properly absorbing/taking advantage of technology.
   not that many years ago, vast amounts of money was spent installing pc’s and networks throughout the OUSD only to have them disappear, or sit unused or misused for years.

   wish i were as optimistic about oakland voters refusing to vote for big parcel tax increases to pay. most residents are renters. and most renters believe that parcel taxes are only paid by homeowners and businesses. yes a disproportionately high percentage of voters are affluent homeowners, with many of them are would be willing to roll the dice on spending another 500 bucks/year to see if they got the promised security.

   all depends how the parcel tax is marketed, and whether parcel tax overload on the ballot from other tax proposals. but when the pols line up and solemnly swear that we’ll have to close all libraries, turn off the street lights, and let the streets collapse in order to pay for a 1,000 cop staffing level, then yes the tax increase will pass.

5. 5
   Robert Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 pm

   len – I agree that the city council needs to get out of the business of implementation. HIre a police chief and hold him/her responsible for improving the security situation in Oakland. And if they don’t produce, fire them. Just don’t try and force particulatr solutions on the person you hired, let hem tell you what they need.