The budget forecast was bolstered by increased sales tax revenues and a nearly 4 percent rise in assessed land value. Foreclosures are also down 44 percent, while the county’s median home values are up 30 percent. Unemployment in Alameda County, currently at 7 percent, has also dropped below the statewide average of 8.5 percent. However, many county residents are still hurting economically.

“At the same time,” says Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi, “caseloads of many of our categorical aid programs that provide safety net services to families, adults, and children are increasing and continue to be far above historic long-term levels.”

The county’s $2.7 billion 2013-14 Fiscal Year budget likely to be approved by the board June 28 includes $25.5 million in cuts to health care, $19.9 million to general government, $18.1 million to public protection and $16.7 million to public assistance. Despite the shortfall, the $80.2 million deficit is the lowest since the Great Recession began in 2008. Layered over the proposal cuts to close the county’s shortfall are one-time strategies representing 60 percent of cuts mostly in the form of net savings carried over from previous fiscal years.

Over $15 million of the cost savings in county health care, the largest percentage of cuts in the proposed budget, come from previous net savings. However, it also includes $1.1 million in reductions for indigent care at Alameda Health System, formerly the Alameda County Medical Center and support for community-based organizations. The elimination of 3.42 vacant FTEs is also proposed.

For net cost savings in public assistance, the proposed budget seeks to cutting 40 already vacant child welfare worker positions and $400,000 from projected caseload declines in adoptions and foster care. At the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, a $1.1 million reduction in discretionary operating costs generated costs savings to the budget. The department also added $2.6 million in revenue by contracting its services to outside agencies.

The county’s nearly 9,200 employees not only received wage increases, but also add 66 full-time equivalent jobs. The budget also maintains a pledge made last December by the Board of Supervisors to offer most county workers increased COLAs. The terms were previously negotiated into various employee labor contracts.

Although, the local economy is showing signs of great improvement and the county budget escaped crippling triple-digit shortfalls for the second consecutive fiscal year, there remains uncertainty, says Muranishi. A federal budget is yet still unresolved as Democrats and Republicans squabble over sequestration cuts. The proposed budget will also set aside $12 million into a discretionary funds to cover any changes stemming from uncertainties due to realignment, pending litigation and the Affordable Care Act, slated to ramp up implementation next January.

The Board of Supervisors will hold additional hearings June 25-26, 1:30 p.m. in chambers with final deliberations June 27 at 11:00 a.m. The budget is scheduled to be adopted June 28, 1 p.m.

Cross posted from East Bay Citizen
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The bill, authored by Oakland Assemblyman Rob Bonta, aims to allow the Oakland City Council to fashion legislation that would curb rising gun violence within its borders. It now heads to the State Senate after winning passage by a 45-25 vote.

“This is a unique law relating to unique circumstances in Oakland,” said Bonta on the floor of the Assembly. Following over 4,000 shootings in Oakland, in addition to 131 homicides last year, Bonta says he is seeking to give Oakland city officials to option to tighten local gun laws. Through the end of this May, Oakland has already suffered nearly 40 homicides

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, one of the bill’s sponsors said the legislation only seeks to confer the same opportunity the Legislature recently gave Los Angeles and its own specific problems with gun violence. “This bill recognizes that one size does not fit all,” said Skinner.

Gun rights advocates, however, fear AB 180 is an attack on their right to bear arms that could spread to other municipalities.

Assembly Tim Donnelly (R-Hesperia), one of the right’s strongest Second Amendment supporters and likely gubernatorial candidate next year, said the bill is “onerous” and a “really bad idea.”

“It is going to deny every citizen in Oakland the right of self-defense,” said Donnelly. “If this were about the polls every Democrat’s mic would be up. They would be opposing this saying, this is a poll tax.

“This is really a poll tax on your right to defend your own life.”

Donnelly added during his floor speech, cities with skyrocketing crime are also places with the strongest gun control. “Just because people live in a certain zip code, I do not believe we should pass a law to deny them a fundamental, God-giving, Constitutional right to defend their lives and their families and their businesses.”

Cross posted from East Bay Citizen..Photo reposted from East Bay Citizen,http://bit.ly/15iJe0o, Used with permission

When Anthony Batts became the new police chief of Oakland, there was little indication he knew how deep the financial problems were. But these days, it is all too clear that Oakland’s budget issues have a direct effect on the police department.

Money woes will weigh heavily on Oakland voters this November election. That’s because Oakland is struggling with a$30.5 million budget deficitfor this year, and next year’s budget gap is projected to reach $50 million.

Some put the city’s structural deficit for the next four years at$400 million. And City Hall’s ownrecent projection shows a structural deficit of $589 million over five years.

City officials claim that they’ve had the rug pulled from under them by the Great Recession. But that’s only part of the story.

Not only has Oakland not saved money for a rainy day, it has dug a major financial debt that is turning into a black hole. To make matters worse, the public safety portion of the city’s general fund budget is greatly unbalanced and accounts for 75 percent of the budget.

“In the last three years the city’s general fund has went from $480 million to about $400 million,” said City Councilwoman Pat Kernighan. “That’s a huge drop.”

The city has put togethera number of options to begin dealing with the immediate budget problems.

First,City Council put a four-year, $360-per-parceltax on the November ballot to fund police and fire services.

If this measure passes,an agreement with Oakland police will kick in where police officers will begin contributing to their pension plan, a contentious issue that has dragged through the summer.

Next, voters will consider a measure that would tax cannabis dispensaries, production and cultivation by 5 percent and recreational use by 10 percent if cannabis is legalized at the state level.

Voters also will consider a phone tax that would impose a $1.99 fee annually if passed.

The current tax proposals on the ballot this fall would place a sudden, heavy tax, primarily on property owners.

City voters also will be asked to overhaul Measure Y to suspend the minimum staffing levels required to collect the tax. About $6 million was used to help pay for 63 problem solving officers that have now been reassigned to street patrol.

According topublished reports, if voters approve every tax measure sought by the city and the Oakland Unified School District this November, the average Oakland resident would have to pay an extra $627 a year.

Even without the recession, the city was likely to facedeep pain anyway. As a result of heavy reliance on real estate transfer tax during the housing boom in 2001 and 2002, the city awarded generous contracts to its public employees, namely police and fire. Over time, those awards took a heavy toll on the city’s general funds. But, while times were financially good, few in city government were warning of a likely disaster, which would mean the layoff of scores of city workers in 2010.

“We were getting a massive amount of income, about $75 million a year from the real estate transfer tax,” Kernighan said. “The city back then should of been more conservative with their fiscal management and they should of said, ‘You know this is probably not going to go on forever, we shouldn’t let our basic expenses grow. We should put some of that money in reserve for a rainy day.’ And they didn’t. It was like, ‘Oh great the money is there we can have more social programs, we can have more this.’”

It was during this boom time that generous raises and benefits were negotiated with many city unions, including police and fire, Kernighan said. Under the pension system plan the city negotiated, many retired fire and city officers were able to retire at 50 and make close their original salaries, in some cases $100,000.

“What’s really needed is a long term, sustainable public safety measure,” said Bruce Nye of Make Oakland Better Now! “The leadership in Oakland has to have a laser-like focus on cost effective public safety solutions for the city.”

Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said the most immediate strategy for the Council is to work with the Oakland Police Department in redeploying police officers in the most strategic way possible.

“I also feel that we need to work on the long-term financial situation,” Kaplan said. “The ideal solution would be to deal with the police pension cost. Most cities no longer do what we do.”

Lowering police pension costs would allow the city to have more funds to hire more officers, she said.

So far, almost all solutions offered fall short.

“Sworn police and firefighters in the Bay Area, and also many other public employees, were treated very well when things were going well economically,” Nye said. “But, it’s also a two-way street and something has to give. One way or another, it has to be less expensive benefits.”

Nye said dollars don’t always equal a feeling of safety.

“One of the first things Batts said was that Oakland has one of the most expensive police departments  and yet not everyone feels safe,”

“I don’t think we’ll get out of this for a while,” Nye said. “I think we have a bigger problem than the loss  of 80 officers or 200 officers.”

This fall, we have a citywide election that has a handful ofrevenue measures, designed to save the police, shore up city services and overhaul Measure Y.

For many Oaklanders, it’s important that the city begin working on some of its root economic problems.

“We’re going to need economic development,” said Jakada Imani, executive director of the Ella Baker Center. “We’re going to need jobs. We’re going to need educational opportunities. We’re going to need recreational development for young people. We’re going to need the parks to be open and open later during the summer. We’re going to need these things in order to have a safe and thriving and inclusive community.”

Nye said smaller resources is now an everyday reality for the Oakland police.

“Trying to do more with less,” he said. “That’s going to continue to be the challenge.”

Kernighan said residents need to get used to dealing with city budget issues.

“This is a pretty permanent situation for the foreseeable future,” she said. “Nobody expects the economy to revive in a big way in the next five years where our revenue stays pretty flat, which is way too low and yet the cost of providing the same services is the same.”

Tomorrow: OPD Chief reflects on past, future

Read Part 1: New OPD chief tries to fight Oakland’s downward spiral  & Part 2: One Year Later: Oakland Chief Batts prepares game plan for department, city;  &  Part 3: Oakland Residents Remain Positive Despite Reduced Police Force, continued Tenson

Acknowledgements: Oakland Local thanks Spot.us, which helped us raise the money to fund this series, Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig for editing these pieces, and Jennifer Inez Ward for all her research and writing.

Read more coverage of the Oakland PD here. http://oaklandlocal.com/tags/OPD

Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts stood confidently during a press conference this past June, prepared to deliver some bad news.

As a result of recent police layoffs and the city budget situation, Batts was about to ask for federal help to deal with recent hot crime trends in a city that has been repeatedly named one of most dangerous in the nation in 2010.

Facing the bright television camera lights and cluster of microphones, Batts explained the recent layoff of 80 officers by the City Council to deal with budget issues would mean that 44 crimes would now only be reported online. The department was asking for federal help to deal with the expected increase in violent crimes these cuts could trigger.

 There was no question that, as he delivered this bad news, Batts conveyed the strong leadership style that had made him a star, even before he signed the contract to leave Long Beach, California, and become police chief of Oakland.

 Still, such drastic shift in city policing, especially in the first year of his assuming command, many say has put Batts' strategic plan for Oakland at risk.

 A few weeks later, in a phone interview, Batts didn’t mince words when he spoke about what the current situation feels like for him.

 “To be perfectly honest, it was demoralizing losing those officers,” he said. “But I understand what our reality is right now.”

 This January, the pain is likely to get deeper for Batts as it is almost certain Oakland PD will lose a minimum of 22 officers – thanks to a clause included in Measure Y. The measure requires the city to maintain 739 officers on staff in order to get nearly $20 million in funding for violence prevention programs and additional police and fire services. Now with the layoffs, the minimum staffing level has dropped. Some say the $20 million is likely to go away and with it, the salaries for 22 officers.

 To make matters worse, if several ballot measures introduced by City Council do not pass in November, there could be an additional 100 more officers laid off from the Oakland Police Department. One bright spot is the city and the police union recently agreed to a new pension plan for the police force. But that plan is only likely to kick in if a controversial parcel tax is passed. In the meantime, there are some that believe the new pension plan agreement can stave off some of the possible layoffs.

 As Oakland’s new police chief deals with this unexpectedly severe situation, some people are wondering if Batts will stay with the city to finish the fight he begun. And so far, while Batts has enjoyed strong support from many in the community, many are keeping an eye on the city’s weekly crime reports, which continues a positive trend downward.

 “I just know he can find a way,” said Nancy C. Thompson, a lifelong Oakland resident who currently lives in the Lakeshore District. “ Even with everything that’s happened. I still believe he can continue to do some good.”

Batts arrives in Oakland, a star is born 

 By all accounts, Mayor Ron Dellums scored major points by landing Batts in Fall 2009. Coming from Long
Beach, California, he was widely viewed as a star, credited with lowering crime rates and bringing administrative order to the Long Beach Police Department during the seven years he served as chief. Dellums had reached
outside of the Oakland Police Department and tapped a man whose name was being chatted about as a bright light in law enforcement.

 Before leading the Long Beach force, Batts worked department for 20 years. Batts is well educated; he holds a doctorate in public administration, a master’s degree in business management and a bachelor of science in law enforcement administration. Batts also holds certifications and awards from a variety of institutes and training courses.

 The tale is told often about how Batts initially spurned the city’s advances. A new Oakland police chief was needed after the failed Wayne Tucker era. Batts only agreed to take the Oakland gig, he said, after the Lovell Mixon shooting incident, which left four OPD officers dead.

 According to media reports coming out of Long Beach, Batts also may have decided to move up north after it was clear that the Long Beach budget cuts were going to slash the department back to the same level as when he became chief in 2002.

 And when he signed on the dotted line, he said he had every intention of ushering in a new era of policing in Oakland and making it one of the safest large cities in California.

 Batts was quickly embraced by many in Oakland, including those residents hoping for a fundamental change in the police department.

“I think that what’s unique about this chief is that this guy’s willing to take responsibility,” said Jakada Imani , executive director of the Ella Baker Center and a lifelong Oakland resident. “And a lot of the chiefs that have come and gone haven’t been that stand up. That’s a huge advantage. He’s come in and said, ‘I want to be accountable, I want to be responsible. I’m in it.’”

 A challenging city

 Crime has been Oakland’s Achilles’ heel for decades. A brief roll call of nationally-known notorious crimes that happened in Oakland includes the Nut Case Killers; the Chauncey Bailey hit allegedly ordered by members of Your Black Muslim Bakery; the Mixon killing of four police officers; and most recently  Oscar Grant being shot in the back by BART officer Johannes Mehserle in Fruitvale. 

 Relations between many communities and the police are mostly chaotic, going generations back. The Black Panthers were able to rise so quickly in Oakland, in part, because they spoke directly about police brutality.

 West Oakland resident Bam Morris said relations would continue to be broken as long as the police refuse to acknowledge some of the historical community pain.

 “People out here are very frustrated by the police,” Morris said. “The police don’t seem to understand that when they commit brutality or treat these young men as if they’re not human, that there’s going to be repercussions behind that.”

 And community distrust of the police continues to run deep especially after the Mehserle verdict. A few young men at the East Oakland Asian Youth Center said there’s constant tension in the street.

 “I be (sic) on 35th and Mac sometimes we’re just out there standing there and when the police tell us to leave, we leave, but sometimes, they’ll just put me in the (police) car for no reason,” said Jacob, who asked that his last name not be used.

 Peter, 20, who also asked for partial anonymity, said constant patrolling by police officers who are looking for young men not doing right creates an “us-against-them” mentality.

 “Basically, it just grows as my not having respect for them as these things keep happening,” Peter said

Olis Simmons, executive director of YouthUprising, said it will take a great amount of work to build a strong, positive relationship between citizens and the city police.

 “Oakland police have a long legacy,” she said. “The question really now is with a black chief who really is committed to preventing the genocide of young black men, how does he re-craft the department in this new era and how does he begin to build trust that begins to put the legacy that the police department has of misconduct and brutality in an historical perspective as opposed to a continual ongoing perspective? And I think with Batts, we couldn’t have hired a better person. The question is can we treat him right … can we hold on to him?”.

Another challenge the department has faced historically is it has been understaffed and badly managed before Batts came on the scene. And Oakland is a workhorse police department with quite a heavy load.

 “Our workload is second to none with any city in California,” said OPD spokesman Jeff Thomason. “Calls coming in to the Oakland Police Department dispatch center are at around 650,000 every year. If you look at the reports we take for Part One Felony (murder, assault, etc.) we take around 30,000 reports a year.”

 Batts was well aware of Oakland’s issues, some of which mirrored problems Long Beach struggled with when he took the helm of that department. But, although OPD was considered understaffed at 803 officers when Batts took over in October 2009, there were some positive signs – including a downward trend happening with murders, assault and other key indicators.

Tomorrow: Oakland Chief Batts prepares game plan for department, city

Acknowledgements: Oakland Local thanks Spot.us, which helped us raise the money to fund this series, Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig for editing these pieces, and Jennifer Inez Ward for all her research and writing.

Read more coverage of the Oakland PD here. http://oaklandlocal.com/tags/OPD

by Mike Ferro, MOBN! Public Safety Committee

Concerned MOBN! members and other citizens will have by now attended an Oakland Police Department Strategic Plan Framework meeting or have read reports about these meetings. Although the planned large-scale public meetings all have been completed, Chief Batts continues to talk to smaller community groups on a regular basis. The important things that have become clear in this process are that Batts is well-informed, that he knows what he is doing and that among Oakland public officials, he has all-too-rare leadership qualities.

MOBN! members should be aware that we have another progressive leader in Oakland with regard to our public safety: Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County District Attorney. Like Chief Batts, O’Malley is extremely-well informed, progressive, efficient, knows what she is doing and has strong leadership qualities. Also like Batts, she is articulate and accessible.

O’Malley spoke last night at a meeting of Oakland’s Neighborhood Watch Steering Committee. Members of the Steering Committee, it needs to be said, are ordinary citizens who have had a long-term interest in public safety and community policing in Oakland. Many of them have been working very hard behind the scenes to improve public safety and in my discussions with some of them have helped me understand the challenges that lie ahead regarding public safety.

First, a few things about Nancy O’Malley which need to be more widely known. The lack of useful media in Oakland is the main reason most of us don’t know about her (as well as others’) record of accomplishment and this media void, in my opinion, is a major factor in Oakland’s dysfunction as a community and its ongoing failures of governance.

Nancy O’Malley has been a leader in the D.A.’s office with regard to victims’ rights and anti-violence prosecution. She has been a prime mover in getting the demolition going at Oak Knoll and moving towards redevelopment there. She is focusing on working in cooperation with the Oakland City Attorney in dealing with urban blight problems (like Oak Knoll).

O’Malley describes herself as “statistics driven.” In other words, she wants to have the numbers to prove that the D.A. is effective. Support services through her office were provided to 35,000 crime victims last year, of which 15,000 cases were in Oakland. In 75% of all cases, her office brings charges; the charge rate for felonies is 80%. Of felony charges brought, 85% result in convictions. Most cases which are tried are murder and domestic violence. The conviction rate in most other California cities ranges from 50 to 60%.

In 2005, with a Federal grant, O’Malley founded the Family Justice Center in Oakland which combines in a single office, on 27th between Broadway and Telegraph, all support services for victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and elder abuse. Having a single office insures that all victims can get access to the services they deserve and need. Previously these services were dispersed and difficult to access. The D.A’s office has a staff of 34 victims’ advocates. In 2009 more than 3000 victims of crime went to the D.A. for help.

Our victim programs come from State law requiring restitution. Alameda County’s program is a model for the rest of California. Many counties do nothing on restitution. Here, in 2009, $10 million in restitution was sought and was court-ordered. The D.A. succeeds in collecting about 50% of this. The Department of Corrections also collects restitution from prisoners and of the total amount collected by Corrections, Alameda County obtains nearly all of the money available statewide.

In Wednesday’s meeting, O’Malley emphasized that lots of the violent crime in Oakland results from turf battles between drug-dealing gangs. She pointed out the ruthlessness of these criminals. Her office has three prosecutors and three investigators in the gang unit and in 2009 they tried 86 gang members and convicted 75 of them. Gang violence prosecutions are very difficult because often the only witnesses are other gang members. This means that her office must run a large witness protection program. Effective gang prosecutions have an effect on reducing the type of violent acts perpetrated here. Gang members now are likely to shoot to wound rather than to kill in order to minimize their prison sentences.

A upcoming challenge for O’Malley are the early releases of prisoners due to State budget shortfalls. The Department of Corrections provides counties only with lists of prisoners to be released. The D.A. must research and check all backgrounds and then make an assessment regarding the potential for reentry into crime. O’Malley has set up a new department of Community Offender Management in her office to deal with the increase in prisoner releases.

Tuesday evening, the Special Public Safety Committee of the Oakland City Council met to review a recommendation from the Civilianization Working Group. The Working Group said that the City should hire additional workers to handle Oakland Police Department complaints. This could relieve sworn police officers from complaint investigations and put them back to work solving crimes. Civilians are significantly cheaper to hire than sworn police officers. Having civilians to interview citizens with complaints also helps to insure that the citizens are free to say what they need to say without feeling intimidated by a police officer. Having more civilians working every day with sworn police staff helps maintain a healthy community focus and respect in the Police Department.

There has been funding available for several months from a Federal grant for two civilians to do this work. The Mayor’s office has not yet moved forward. Additional funding could be sought by Oakland grant-writers. Council member Reid instructed the Mayor’s representative and the Police Department finance officer to look into obtaining grants for this purpose. Council member Quan instructed the finance officer to look for some spare funds in the OPD budget. Some of the citizens in attendance, who have long been advocating for increased civilianization of the police, were glad to get any positive response from the Council. Whether there will actually be any forward movement on this remains to be seen.

“Questionable” really is the appropriate word at this point to describe the prospects for improved public safety in Oakland. We do have two able leaders. These leaders cannot, however, do their work adequately without sufficient resources. Additional funds from the Oakland budget will not be forthcoming. Chief Batts has been heard to say that he would like to have 75 additional sworn officers. Yet, the word circulating around is that the City Council is considering reducing police staff by 30 to 40 because of Oakland’s sorry financial state.

At the heart of Oakland’s public safety problems, in my view, is our fundamentally dysfunctional governance. We don’t have enough leaders in this City who can clearly define a policy or project, keep it on track by attending to the details and make adjustments along the way to reflect changes in conditions and improvements in understanding.

Oakland’s finance is, as a whole, incomprehensible. What goes on downtown in terms of decisonmaking is also almost completely obscure. We don’t have the competent reporters and effective media we need to keep us informed even in a very basic way.

There is hope. There are many citizens here who do want to improve things and who prefer to act on their hopes and wishes rather than spend their time focused on the wobbly twin pillars of complaining and blaming. D.A. O’Malley and Chief Batts are clearly committed public servants and are here for the long haul. O’Malley (who was appointed to her job after the previous D.A. retired) is devoted to public service and will run unopposed for election to her office. Batts has a work contract so that he can do what he thinks is right without having to worry about being fired at someone’s whim when things get tough.

Last, we have a history of citizen involvement in public safety. Until ten years ago, there were many civilians working as volunteers in the police department. We can do this again and in greater numbers than previously. At present there are 644 Neighborhood Watch all-volunteer groups in Oakland and their numbers are increasing. In coming weeks, the City Council may want to lay off the coordinators for the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils because of Oakland’s financial problems. Volunteers do much of the work of the NCPCs. We can go to the City Council meetings and tell our representatives not to stop these important community policing efforts. The City Council does not appear to understand what community policing is all about; we can make sure that they know that we do understand.