The Informant

Ali Winston

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and City Administrator Lamont Ewell discuss budget proposals on April 29, 2011

It’s no secret Oakland is in a deep financial hole. The city is $58 million in the red and has endured four consecutive years of budget cuts, laying off 507 employees along the way. The Oakland Police Department has not been immune to the pain: The department currently has 662 sworn officers, down from 802 a year and a half ago.

Under Mayor Jean Quan’s new budget proposal, the department is expected to contract further. In the best of the three scenarios outlined by Mayor Quan and City Administrator Lamont Ewell during a press conference this afternoon, OPD would shrink to 650 sworn officers: in the worst, the city would only be left with 600 police by 2013.

Quan’s budgets are based on three scenarios, which do not take into account potential cuts in state and federal funds to Oakland:

• That the city’s financial situation remains unaltered, leading to an “all cuts” plan. (Plan A)
• Unions representing city employees will agree to furloughs and contributions of 10 to 15 percent to their retirement and pension funds. (Plan B)
• In addition to the employee concessions outlined above, the City Council votes to put Quan’s proposed parcel tax on the July ballot and voters approve it. (Plan C)

Under the first two scenarios, OPD would reduce its sworn strength through attrition to 640 officers by 2012, and 600 officers in 2013. Currently, OPD loses approximately 5 officers a month due to retirements, transfers or terminations. 10 of the 13 Neighborhood Services Coordinators would be laid off under Plan A, and the remaining officers would be required to take 15 unpaid leave days each year.

Police overtime will be cut by $2 million regardless of the city’s financial outlook. The department’s helicopter will remain grounded and take-home vehicles for OPD personnel will be eliminated, saving an additional $160,000.

Although reductions in police service are severe, City Administrator Lamont Ewell said the budget was designed to “keep public safety as a priority.” To fill in for vacancies in patrol, OPD will shift officers currently assigned to desk jobs to the street. However, Mayor Quan said the depth of the nation’s financial crisis and Oakland’s deficit meant that OPD will not return to anywhere near full strength for years.

All three scenarios include funding for at least one police academy of 20 to 50 cadets. The Mayor and OPD plan to recruit from criminal justice courses at Merritt College, in an effort to keep costs for the academy down and increase the number of police officers from Oakland. Currently, less than 15 percent of OPD officers are from the city.

Last summer, 80 OPD officers were laid off after the Oakland Police Officer’s Association voted not to contribute to their pension and retirement funds, a key issue of contention with the city administration. Because of the severity of the budget crisis and OPD’s continued shrinkage, negotiations between the city and OPOA have resumed. Neither Mayor Quan nor City Manager Ewell would elaborate on negotiations with the police union.

In the short term, the city will hire back 20 laid-off officers in addition to the 10 police who were brought back in February.

Quan wants Council to review gang injunctions

On the heels of City Attorney John Russo’s acceptance of the position of city manager in Alameda, Mayor Quan called for the City Council to review Oakland’s gang injunction strategy. Although Quan said she is neither for or against injunctions, she did express concern at the cost of Russo’s three injunctions, only one of which is in place.

“I could run two youth programs for $700,000,” Quan said of the city’s expenditures on gang injunctions. All told, $781,128 has been spent on the North Oakland, Fruitvale and Area 3 injunctions by OPD and the City Attorney. Mayor Quan also said she planned to offer several proposed reforms to how the City Attorney reports legal expenditures to the Mayor and City Council. Aside from the gang injunctions, Quan said “there were several cases we found had really ballooned [in cost] that we didn’t know about.”

On the broader topic of injunctions, Quan said OPD should have the necessary means to target threats to public safety. However, she did express chagrin with the broad nature of Russo’s injunctions and the polarizing effect they have had on city politics.

Oakland Police officials are keeping quiet on the proposed budget until next week: neither Police Chief Anthony Batts or Assistant Chief Howard Jordan were available for comment on Friday afternoon.