Last night, I cast the decisive vote to break a tie at City Council that avoided an all cuts budget at the start of the new fiscal year today, and moved us closer to a fair share budget that will keep Oakland moving forward. The next step is to ask our residents to approve additional temporary emergency revenues in the Fall election.

I want to thank City employees -- the police and fire unions who came to the table even though their contracts had not expired, as well as lower paid employees who are harder hit.  Everyone worked hard and made multiple sacrifices to preserve essential services. Without their commitment to Oakland, we would not be keeping the doors open at libraries, senior centers, parks and recreation facilities, and other important programs. We were able to negotiate and approve agreements that we have not been able to reach as recently as last year. I want to acknowledge the sacrifice of each bargaining unit and every City employee, and to convey my deep appreciation.

Second, I thank my colleagues on the City Council, who debated the budget passionately. The two proposals on the table last night had much in common; about 95% of them were the same as my Option B budget. There were elements in each approach that I liked or disliked. I voted to break the tie so that we could produce a balanced budget on time as required by the Charter and move things forward. The chief difference was the rate of bringing back police officers. I promised both sides I will work to bring back as many officers as quickly as possible, but we will need additional revenues to get to the levels we would all like.


The economy is recovering slowly. It will take us several years to recover the same level of property taxes we had just three years ago. It is critical to pass a parcel tax to

·         Fully staff our senior centers

·         Maintain police staff levels

·         Add crews to fix pot holes

·         Restore park maintenance staff

We begin the new fiscal year with a budget, a new city administrator, and a lot of work ahead of us:

·         We will join other cities to take the legislators’ decision on redevelopment to court and hope to have a decision by the end of July.

·         We will fight the newest state grab of between $1.3 and $1.5 million from the state vehicle license fees.

·         We have the sad job of lay offs and managing the bumping process that will occur as we implement the budget.

 

I want to thank everyone, again, for working so hard during these difficult times.