13 16-1140 Subject: Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-19 Budget Adoption
From: Office Of The City Administrator
Recommendation: Adopt The Following Pieces Of Legislation:
1) A Resolution Authorizing The Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-2019 Biennial Budget And Appropriating Certain Funds To Provide For The Expenditures Proposed By Said Budget; And
Please do not increase funding for OPD. This is an irresponsible choice at a time when members of our community are more fearful when there is a greater police presence. Evidence shows that education, economic empowerment, and social programs are the most effective tools for reducing violence and illegal activity in a community. Policing only serves to further suppress already marginalized people and keep them out away from services and resources. I will be watching closely to see how the council decides tonight. Please direct this money back into programs the community needs, not into policing people out of existence.
No increases in OPD funding should occur before we understand how and why they have so far outstripped their granted budget (especially in overtime). Further, we should figure out ways to get the police out of roles that can be better, more humanely, and less expensively dealt with by civilians in our community.
I have worked in Oakland for the past seven years – at the largest community health center in the city and with students in East Oakland schools. As a public health professional, I can attest to the significant need for more support services for youth, more support for families to stay in housing, more support for immigrant communities and more trauma services. These are the real needs that we see every day working with youth. And as a public health professional, I know the last thing Oakland needs is more police. We know that police violence and police surveillance are a tangible and significant attack on the health of communities – especially communities of color; especially youth. We know that they have grave, concrete and widespread lasting effects. The city has an opportunity to invest in housing, in schools, in health systems – the city council and the mayor need to prioritize the residents they represent and serve. Policing doesn’t work. Invest in what we know is needed more.
Olivia Smartt, Kempton / Fairmount Neighborhood Watch Co-Captain
over 7 years ago
NO increases for OPD funds. The OPD is not currently acting on the side of the people to serve and protect, and is already overfunded. #DefundOPD and #InvestInCommunity instead!
The city of Oakland should reduce funding for the Oakland Police Department- we need more affordable housing, better public schools and more employment opportunities, not more cops patrolling the streets and racking up overtime pay.
It is unacceptable that the Oakland Police Department takes up almost 50% of the city’s General Fund, while Oakland cannot fund the true drivers of public safety. We do not need more funds going into OPD, who has shown an unprecedented level of dysfunction, like the extra $7.13 million hidden in the police department's proposed budget or the $1 million dollar payout to the woman who was sex trafficked by many members of the department. I encourage you to consider this: what crimes / calls for service does OPD actually handle? Since they are the most expensive employees in the city, do we really need them to do everything they are doing? Do we really need the highest paid (and heavily armed) employees to tow cars/write tickets? Are heavily armed police who we want responding to mental health calls/wellness checks? We can afford 2-3 social workers and clinicians (professionals with thousands of hours of training) for the price of one armed cop with no expertise (15 hours of training).
If anything we should reduce funding for OPD. 1 million was poured into settling a case in which 30 adults raped a child. There is no moral reason to now increase the funding for such a corrupt department. We should be redirecting our spending to directly serve our community: education and youth programming, affordable housing (especially helping lifetime Oakland residents who have been displaced by outrageous market inflation partially in part to our government failing to regulate this and being happy to pocket money), safe artists spaces to encourage our unique and culturally significant arts scenes, free mental health and addiction services especially to our homeless, more firefighters not tied to the OPD, and medical care.
Please reduce funding for OPD and invest that money into education, public health, food security, urban garden, affordable housing, mental health, and other such sectors that are in dire need of resources and will actually benefit our community!
Please decrease funding for OPD and reallocate that money into community and school mental health services. More policing will not decrease violence in our communities but mental health services at all levels will. Public school teachers and counselors are crowdfunding for their programs so they can better meet the needs of Oakland youth. This is completely unacceptable in a city where the police budget continues to rise dramatically. Please Oakland City Council, innovate and lead! We live in a city with some of the most amazing, creative, diverse, active minds around and I know that if harnessed in the proper way by you, the leadership of this city, Oakland can create more innovative ways to solve the city's problems that throwing more and more money at policing.
Please do not increase funding for OPD. Police are being used as a blunt instrument to handle problems that are not suited for law enforcement. Oakland needs to redirect it's out of control police spending towards alternative programs, such as affordable housing, mental health services, and social work, that can better address the REAL needs of our community. We must treat the root cause of the issues affecting our community, not spend more money on ineffectively treating the symptoms and only making the problems worse.
Please do not increase funding to the OPD. This department already receives a massive amount of funding, and there are other sectors that desperately need the investment. Examples include education, mental health, drug addiction prevention and treatment programs, after school programs, food security initiatives, infrastructure, affordable housing, public arts, and affordable public transportation. As a business owner in Oakland, I would like to see the town put our tax dollars to work, not sink more money into a police department embroiled in scandal and constant allegations of violence on our beloved community members. Thank you.
Do not increase funding for OPD - our per capita police spending is already higher than 90% of comparable cities in California and the country. Instead, reinvest that money into alternative non-police programs, including affordable housing, mental health, and medical care that can better protect and strengthen our communities
I agree the final budget must include the following: --Funding for five full time vegetation management inspectors, one full time supervisor, one program analyst and one management assistant. --A minimum of $1.2 million dollars per year for vegetation management on city owned properties (including goat grazing, roadside clearance and other compliance work.) We do not seek funding during the next two years to create a new wildfire prevention district. I agree that a new wildfire district should not be considered until the vegetation management plan and subsequent EIR be completed. Only then can we put a price on the work to be done and contemplate the structure of a new wildfire prevention district.
Please do not increase funding to the OPD, and cut their budget if possible. We should be spending that money on affordable housing and mental health services.
We need to fund five full time vegetation management inspectors, one full time supervisor, one program analyst and one management assistant. A minimum of $1.2 million dollars per year for vegetation management on city owned properties (including goat grazing, roadside clearance and other compliance work.)
The 1991 fire cost billions of dollars and killed 28 people. We need to spend money to reduce the probability that this will not happen again.
We learned lessens about fire safety from the 1991 fire and the Ghost Ship Fire. Oakland must never let these tragedies happen again.
I support funding for a minimum staff of 5 full-time OFD Vegetation Management Inspectors. The VM Unit has been chronically hampered with fewer than 5 full-time Inspectors for the last several years. I also support funding for a full-time program analyst to allow Inspectors to be efficient and effective in the field, rather than working at a desk.
Please also do not consider a new wildfire district until the city's Vegetation Management Plan & EIR are completed (est. 2018). At a WPAD-sponsored event in February 2015, the attendees (many with opposing opinions about trees and fire) unanimously concluded that such a plan was essential before a new district should be considered.
I'd like to see less dollars spent on policing and have more funds go towards affordable housing, education, libraries, after-school programs, parks, arts and museums, mass transit, family wellness, mental health, drug addiction treatment & prevention programs, filling potholes, planting trees, programs to encourage and support small, locally-owned businesses ....
Please do not increase funding for OPD. This is an irresponsible choice at a time when members of our community are more fearful when there is a greater police presence. Evidence shows that education, economic empowerment, and social programs are the most effective tools for reducing violence and illegal activity in a community. Policing only serves to further suppress already marginalized people and keep them out away from services and resources. I will be watching closely to see how the council decides tonight. Please direct this money back into programs the community needs, not into policing people out of existence.
No increases in OPD funding should occur before we understand how and why they have so far outstripped their granted budget (especially in overtime). Further, we should figure out ways to get the police out of roles that can be better, more humanely, and less expensively dealt with by civilians in our community.
I have worked in Oakland for the past seven years – at the largest community health center in the city and with students in East Oakland schools. As a public health professional, I can attest to the significant need for more support services for youth, more support for families to stay in housing, more support for immigrant communities and more trauma services. These are the real needs that we see every day working with youth. And as a public health professional, I know the last thing Oakland needs is more police. We know that police violence and police surveillance are a tangible and significant attack on the health of communities – especially communities of color; especially youth. We know that they have grave, concrete and widespread lasting effects. The city has an opportunity to invest in housing, in schools, in health systems – the city council and the mayor need to prioritize the residents they represent and serve. Policing doesn’t work. Invest in what we know is needed more.
#DefundOPD and #InvestInCommunity!
NO increases for OPD funds. The OPD is not currently acting on the side of the people to serve and protect, and is already overfunded. #DefundOPD and #InvestInCommunity instead!
The city of Oakland should reduce funding for the Oakland Police Department- we need more affordable housing, better public schools and more employment opportunities, not more cops patrolling the streets and racking up overtime pay.
Please divest from our corrupt police department and invest in people.
It is unacceptable that the Oakland Police Department takes up almost 50% of the city’s General Fund, while Oakland cannot fund the true drivers of public safety. We do not need more funds going into OPD, who has shown an unprecedented level of dysfunction, like the extra $7.13 million hidden in the police department's proposed budget or the $1 million dollar payout to the woman who was sex trafficked by many members of the department. I encourage you to consider this: what crimes / calls for service does OPD actually handle? Since they are the most expensive employees in the city, do we really need them to do everything they are doing? Do we really need the highest paid (and heavily armed) employees to tow cars/write tickets? Are heavily armed police who we want responding to mental health calls/wellness checks? We can afford 2-3 social workers and clinicians (professionals with thousands of hours of training) for the price of one armed cop with no expertise (15 hours of training).
If anything we should reduce funding for OPD. 1 million was poured into settling a case in which 30 adults raped a child. There is no moral reason to now increase the funding for such a corrupt department. We should be redirecting our spending to directly serve our community: education and youth programming, affordable housing (especially helping lifetime Oakland residents who have been displaced by outrageous market inflation partially in part to our government failing to regulate this and being happy to pocket money), safe artists spaces to encourage our unique and culturally significant arts scenes, free mental health and addiction services especially to our homeless, more firefighters not tied to the OPD, and medical care.
Please reduce funding for OPD and invest that money into education, public health, food security, urban garden, affordable housing, mental health, and other such sectors that are in dire need of resources and will actually benefit our community!
Please decrease funding for OPD and reallocate that money into community and school mental health services. More policing will not decrease violence in our communities but mental health services at all levels will. Public school teachers and counselors are crowdfunding for their programs so they can better meet the needs of Oakland youth. This is completely unacceptable in a city where the police budget continues to rise dramatically. Please Oakland City Council, innovate and lead! We live in a city with some of the most amazing, creative, diverse, active minds around and I know that if harnessed in the proper way by you, the leadership of this city, Oakland can create more innovative ways to solve the city's problems that throwing more and more money at policing.
Please do not increase funding for OPD. Police are being used as a blunt instrument to handle problems that are not suited for law enforcement. Oakland needs to redirect it's out of control police spending towards alternative programs, such as affordable housing, mental health services, and social work, that can better address the REAL needs of our community. We must treat the root cause of the issues affecting our community, not spend more money on ineffectively treating the symptoms and only making the problems worse.
Please do not increase funding to the OPD. This department already receives a massive amount of funding, and there are other sectors that desperately need the investment. Examples include education, mental health, drug addiction prevention and treatment programs, after school programs, food security initiatives, infrastructure, affordable housing, public arts, and affordable public transportation. As a business owner in Oakland, I would like to see the town put our tax dollars to work, not sink more money into a police department embroiled in scandal and constant allegations of violence on our beloved community members. Thank you.
Do not increase funding for OPD - our per capita police spending is already higher than 90% of comparable cities in California and the country. Instead, reinvest that money into alternative non-police programs, including affordable housing, mental health, and medical care that can better protect and strengthen our communities
Source: https://www.defundopd.org/opd-facts-and-figures
Please do not increase funding for OPD. The budget needs to go for better mental health services and affordable housing!
I agree the final budget must include the following: --Funding for five full time vegetation management inspectors, one full time supervisor, one program analyst and one management assistant. --A minimum of $1.2 million dollars per year for vegetation management on city owned properties (including goat grazing, roadside clearance and other compliance work.) We do not seek funding during the next two years to create a new wildfire prevention district. I agree that a new wildfire district should not be considered until the vegetation management plan and subsequent EIR be completed. Only then can we put a price on the work to be done and contemplate the structure of a new wildfire prevention district.
Please do not increase funding to the OPD, and cut their budget if possible. We should be spending that money on affordable housing and mental health services.
We need to fund five full time vegetation management inspectors, one full time supervisor, one program analyst and one management assistant. A minimum of $1.2 million dollars per year for vegetation management on city owned properties (including goat grazing, roadside clearance and other compliance work.)
The 1991 fire cost billions of dollars and killed 28 people. We need to spend money to reduce the probability that this will not happen again.
We learned lessens about fire safety from the 1991 fire and the Ghost Ship Fire. Oakland must never let these tragedies happen again.
Howard Matis
I support funding for a minimum staff of 5 full-time OFD Vegetation Management Inspectors. The VM Unit has been chronically hampered with fewer than 5 full-time Inspectors for the last several years. I also support funding for a full-time program analyst to allow Inspectors to be efficient and effective in the field, rather than working at a desk.
Please also do not consider a new wildfire district until the city's Vegetation Management Plan & EIR are completed (est. 2018). At a WPAD-sponsored event in February 2015, the attendees (many with opposing opinions about trees and fire) unanimously concluded that such a plan was essential before a new district should be considered.
I'd like to see less dollars spent on policing and have more funds go towards affordable housing, education, libraries, after-school programs, parks, arts and museums, mass transit, family wellness, mental health, drug addiction treatment & prevention programs, filling potholes, planting trees, programs to encourage and support small, locally-owned businesses ....