Ignacio de la Fuente: City Council meetings on redevelopment money budget cuts (Community Voices)

Ignacio de la Fuente Mon, 23 Jan at 2:06pm
File photo, used with permission

File photo, used with permission

No doubt you have heard by now about the elimination of redevelopment agencies across California.  For Oakland, the impact will be huge.  The loss of redevelopment funds translates into an immediate budget cut of approximately $26 million dollars to be implemented by February 1st.  Last Wednesday the City Administrator issued lay-off notices to 2,500 City employees, the final number of positions to be cut remains unknown.
 
Because the turnaround time to implement these cuts is so short, the City Council has scheduled two special meetings to discuss this matter.  The first will be held on Wednesday, January 25th at 5:30 PM and the second meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 31st at 5:30 PM both in Council Chambers on the 3rd floor of City Hall.
 
While I realize this is short notice, I have scheduled an emergency community meeting for TOMORROW, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24TH AT 6:00 PM to discuss the potential impacts of these cuts but most importantly to GET YOUR INPUT.  I apologize for the short notice.  The meeting will be held at St. Jarlath’s Church/School Campus, 2634 Pleasant Street in the school auditorium (at Fruitvale Ave just below the 580, same place where Mayor Quan had her district 5 town hall meeting.)  I hope you can join us.  The decisions that the Council will make on the 31st will have huge impacts on the delivery of City services, I need to hear from you.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Richard Fuentes in my office at 238-6126 or rfuentes@oaklandnet.com

 

About Ignacio de la Fuente
First elected to the Oakland City Council in 1992, Ignacio de la Fuente served as the chair of the Council's Economic and Community Development Committee until January 1999. At that time, Oakland adopted the Strong-Mayor form of government that removed the Mayor from the City Council and created the position of Council President. Mr. De La Fuente became the first Council member to be elected by his peers to serve as President of the Oakland City Council in 1999. He has been re-elected to this position every two years since then. Mr. De La Fuente also co-chairs the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority, overseeing the City’s Coliseum-Arena complex and three professional sports franchises. Mr. De La Fuente has been the point person for the city's efforts at both downtown and neighborhood revitalization. He is credited with the revitalization of Fruitvale’s International Boulevard shopping area – taking its vacancy rate from 40% to nearly 0% -- as well as adding major developments like the Fruitvale Station Shopping Center, Super K-Mart (now Home Depot) and the Fruitvale Transit Village. He is also credited with leading efforts to build two new public schools and ball fields where a large, abandoned building once stood in the Fruitvale. These are the Cesar Chavez Education Center and Ascend School.