7 20-0406 Subject: FY 2020-21 Mid Cycle Budget Amendments
From: Finance Department
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Amending Resolution No. 87759 C.M.S., Which Adopted The City Of Oakland's Fiscal Year 2019-21 Biennial Budget, To Make Mid-Cycle Budget Adjustments To: (1) Fiscal Year 2020-21 General Purpose Fund Revenue Projections; (2) Fiscal Year 2020-21 General Purpose Fund Appropriations; And (3) Fiscal Year 2020-21 Non-General Purpose Fund Revenue Projections And Appropriations
I'm pleased to see some cuts proposed to the OPD budget, but we will need to go much further to restructure our city budget to prevent crime and foster full flourishing of all our city's people instead of criminalizing them
I am a District 1 resident and nurse commenting to show my support for divesting resources from OPD and investing money in local communities via healthcare, youth programs, public housing, education, and more.
My name is Daniel Robelo, District 3 resident, and I support defunding OPD by 50% and investing in the community. OPD takes almost HALF of Oakland's general fund each year, and that percentage has skyrocketed in the past two decades — consuming desperately needed resources from essential city programs and vital services.
The investment in policing has not made us safer. OPD remains an embarrassment to the city and a lethal threat to Oakland’s Black and Brown communities.
It’s time we tore up the blank check. We must Defund OPD!
We demand:
Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by at least 50% (roughly $150 Million).
Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD.
Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers and other services that actually keep the community safe.
I am a district 1 resident and I stand with Black leaders in the community in demanding that city council:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Meghan Herbert and I am a District 2 Oakland resident adding my voice, along with many other residents, to urge you to defund OPD. I stand with the Anti Police-Terror Project and other Black Oakland leadership calling for change. Oakland's budget must reflect the priorities of its residents, and we demand that funds be diverted from ineffective and harmful policing to services and programs that benefit our communities, such as education, housing, mental health services, youth programs, etc.
I urge you to take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I am an Oakland resident writing to urge you to defund OPD.
I support the spirit of the proposal by Nikki Fortunato Bas: "to reallocate (from the police budget) at least $25 million towards improving safety and providing the services our residents really need," but this proposal does NOT go far enough!
As Oakland residents, we, therefore, demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Ruby Strandlund, I live in district 3. Currently, Housing and Community Development receives 15% of what OPD receives; Parks, Recs, and Youth Development receives 10% of what OPD receives; Economic and Workforce Development receives 5% of what OPD receives. In the past, Oakland residents have voted to invest in these departments, and yet more and more money continues to be funneled into a police department that has proven to be racist, inefficient, and corrupt.
I reject the proposed budget, and demand that you:
1.) Defund OPD's budget by at least 50%.
2.) Discontinue unapproved OPD overtime.
5.) Discontinue using general funds on settlements of police misconduct and negligence.
4.) Allocate general funds towards housing, mental health workers, youth programs, jobs, and other services that will actually make our community safer, especially for our Black and POC community members.
My name is Anisha Gandhi. I live in district 3 of Oakland. I demand that the city council votes to do the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
The budget creates the values of our community. Our values should be care, education, housing, and health, not policing of our most vulnerable populations. Our government's role is to serve us, not police us. Stop using our money to pay for the murder, incarceration, and policing of our Black and Brown communities. Our money should not be used to bail out police officers when they have harmed our communities. Please Defund OPD.
I am a District 1 resident urging the council to respond to demands to drastically reduce / halve OPD's share of the general fund and redirect our money to invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers, and many other services, as much as possible in programs created by, run by, supported by, and serving black and brown members of our community. I also want to thank / echo the many other commenters ahead of me, whose comments seem to have disappeared - at least 50 voices also making these same demands.
Hi! My name is Chelsea Miller and I live in Oakland in District 3. I’m calling to tell you to defund Oakland Police Department. OPD has failed to be reformed and enacts violence on the community it claims to protect. Oakland has been federally mandated for reform since 2013—that is SEVENTEEN years—with an independent federal monitor and has still failed to meet reform requirements. the monitor found that 36% of the incidents had false or unreported instances of use of force and 45% of instances had cases of potential misconduct. Reform does not work you must DEFUND OPD. Put our city’s resources into the things our community needs most, like violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, and addressing the opioid crisis, instead of funding $330 Million to the Oakland Police Department
As an Oakland resident, I oppose the Midcycle budget as currently presented by the Mayor and City Council.
I stand with others in calling for the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
4. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
In a time where your constituent citizens will be facing unprecedented joblessness, homelessness and general economic duress, it is irrational and amoral to cut spending on human and social services, while maintaining a $300M police budget. If you choose to continue current spending levels on police, you will effectively be prioritizing the oversized demands of ~800 police over the direct needs of your ~430k constituents.
My name is Sylvie and I am a district 1 resident and I hope you will:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
District 3 resident here, echoing the numerous comments to substantially defund OPD and to instead shift those funds to make much-needed investments in education, healthcare, public housing, food access, mental health care, and youth programs, especially in Oakland neighborhoods that have long faced neglect and redlining paired with an oppressive police presence. Direct investments in struggling communities that address core material needs are more important than ever in the wake of the widening inequalities arising from the economic effects of the pandemic, and it's sad and embarrassing that Oakland's current budget is so heavily skewed towards policing, an institution that currently exists to protect entrenched power in an ever-more-unequal society.
The gross behavior of OPD in the recent protests presents yet another reason why our community would be safer without military-esque thugs patrolling our neighborhoods. Cut OPD's general fund allocation by at least 50%, and do it now.
I am a resident and public school teacher in Oakland and I stand with the Anti-Police Terror Project and other Black leaders in our community in demanding the city of Oakland to defund the Oakland Police Department by at least 50% and reinvest in much needed social services that actually will promote feelings of safety in the community (unlike police presence).
Specific demands are:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
4. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
I am resident of District 4 and I would like to echo the countless community members voicing their anger over the historical and recent behavior of the Oakland Police Department and to demand that:
1. OPDs share of the general fund be reduced by 50%, or $150M, and that
2. This money instead be invested in the critical resources needed to keep our community safe and strong, such as housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers, and so on.
3. I also demand the discontinuation of both unauthorized overtime by OPD and
4. The discontinuation of general fund dollars being used to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence.
Oakland is supposed to be one of the most progressive cities in the country and yet the long history of corruption and violence within our police department continues to harm our community, and especially our Black and Brown community members, and the time is NOW to put an end to this.
I am resident of district 1. I would like to advocate for the following:
• Assume the Pessimistic scenario and restructure the budget accordingly. The tactic of budgeting the “baseline” forecast scenario is flawed and will result in another painful budget exercise in the near future
• Big picture prioritization: The mayor notes the following priorities (Holistic Community Safety, Housing, Economic & Cultural Security, Vibrant, Sustainable Infrastructure, Responsive, Trustworthy Government. The priorities are misaligned with our budget. Out of our $1.65B annual budget
o ~$330M on our Police department, 25% of city employees
o ~$200M on underfunded liabilities – and an unfunded liability of ~$2.7B
o $79M on OUSD
o $29M on Homelessness
o $77M on Affordable Housing
o $113M on Street paving
o We are under funding community programs in favor or Law Enforcement and pensions plans. Propose reallocating 25-50% of the police budget to our priorities and reforms to our unfunded liabilities
I am an Oakland native and resident and I stand with Black leaders in the community in demanding that city council:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Rebecca Voropaeff and I am an Oakland resident writing to urge you to defund OPD.
I support the spirit of the proposal by Nikki Fortunato Bas: "to reallocate (from the police budget) at least $25 million towards improving safety and providing the services our residents really need," but this proposal does NOT go far enough!
As Oakland residents, we, therefore, demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
I am a resident of District 3. I oppose this item. OPD must be defunded (by at least 50%) and those funds transferred into education, non-police emergency personnel, mental health care programs and workers, and other community services. Please listen to your constituents. We do not want the OPD on our streets; we want positive, helpful services!
My name is J. Kris Mordecai, and I am a District 2 resident.
OPD takes almost half of Oakland's general fund each year, and that percentage has skyrocketed in the past two decades — consuming desperately needed resources from essential city programs and vital services.
The investment in policing has NOT made us safer. OPD remains an embarrassment to the city and a lethal threat to Oakland’s Black and Brown communities.
As Oakland residents, we demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
I'm pleased to see some cuts proposed to the OPD budget, but we will need to go much further to restructure our city budget to prevent crime and foster full flourishing of all our city's people instead of criminalizing them
I am a District 1 resident and nurse commenting to show my support for divesting resources from OPD and investing money in local communities via healthcare, youth programs, public housing, education, and more.
My name is Daniel Robelo, District 3 resident, and I support defunding OPD by 50% and investing in the community. OPD takes almost HALF of Oakland's general fund each year, and that percentage has skyrocketed in the past two decades — consuming desperately needed resources from essential city programs and vital services.
The investment in policing has not made us safer. OPD remains an embarrassment to the city and a lethal threat to Oakland’s Black and Brown communities.
It’s time we tore up the blank check. We must Defund OPD!
We demand:
Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by at least 50% (roughly $150 Million).
Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD.
Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers and other services that actually keep the community safe.
I am a district 1 resident and I stand with Black leaders in the community in demanding that city council:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Meghan Herbert and I am a District 2 Oakland resident adding my voice, along with many other residents, to urge you to defund OPD. I stand with the Anti Police-Terror Project and other Black Oakland leadership calling for change. Oakland's budget must reflect the priorities of its residents, and we demand that funds be diverted from ineffective and harmful policing to services and programs that benefit our communities, such as education, housing, mental health services, youth programs, etc.
I urge you to take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I am an Oakland resident writing to urge you to defund OPD.
I support the spirit of the proposal by Nikki Fortunato Bas: "to reallocate (from the police budget) at least $25 million towards improving safety and providing the services our residents really need," but this proposal does NOT go far enough!
As Oakland residents, we, therefore, demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Ruby Strandlund, I live in district 3. Currently, Housing and Community Development receives 15% of what OPD receives; Parks, Recs, and Youth Development receives 10% of what OPD receives; Economic and Workforce Development receives 5% of what OPD receives. In the past, Oakland residents have voted to invest in these departments, and yet more and more money continues to be funneled into a police department that has proven to be racist, inefficient, and corrupt.
I reject the proposed budget, and demand that you:
1.) Defund OPD's budget by at least 50%.
2.) Discontinue unapproved OPD overtime.
5.) Discontinue using general funds on settlements of police misconduct and negligence.
4.) Allocate general funds towards housing, mental health workers, youth programs, jobs, and other services that will actually make our community safer, especially for our Black and POC community members.
My name is Anisha Gandhi. I live in district 3 of Oakland. I demand that the city council votes to do the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
The budget creates the values of our community. Our values should be care, education, housing, and health, not policing of our most vulnerable populations. Our government's role is to serve us, not police us. Stop using our money to pay for the murder, incarceration, and policing of our Black and Brown communities. Our money should not be used to bail out police officers when they have harmed our communities. Please Defund OPD.
I am a District 1 resident urging the council to respond to demands to drastically reduce / halve OPD's share of the general fund and redirect our money to invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers, and many other services, as much as possible in programs created by, run by, supported by, and serving black and brown members of our community. I also want to thank / echo the many other commenters ahead of me, whose comments seem to have disappeared - at least 50 voices also making these same demands.
Hi! My name is Chelsea Miller and I live in Oakland in District 3. I’m calling to tell you to defund Oakland Police Department. OPD has failed to be reformed and enacts violence on the community it claims to protect. Oakland has been federally mandated for reform since 2013—that is SEVENTEEN years—with an independent federal monitor and has still failed to meet reform requirements. the monitor found that 36% of the incidents had false or unreported instances of use of force and 45% of instances had cases of potential misconduct. Reform does not work you must DEFUND OPD. Put our city’s resources into the things our community needs most, like violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, and addressing the opioid crisis, instead of funding $330 Million to the Oakland Police Department
As an Oakland resident, I oppose the Midcycle budget as currently presented by the Mayor and City Council.
I stand with others in calling for the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
4. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
In a time where your constituent citizens will be facing unprecedented joblessness, homelessness and general economic duress, it is irrational and amoral to cut spending on human and social services, while maintaining a $300M police budget. If you choose to continue current spending levels on police, you will effectively be prioritizing the oversized demands of ~800 police over the direct needs of your ~430k constituents.
Spend money on our people, not on the police.
My name is Sylvie and I am a district 1 resident and I hope you will:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
District 3 resident here, echoing the numerous comments to substantially defund OPD and to instead shift those funds to make much-needed investments in education, healthcare, public housing, food access, mental health care, and youth programs, especially in Oakland neighborhoods that have long faced neglect and redlining paired with an oppressive police presence. Direct investments in struggling communities that address core material needs are more important than ever in the wake of the widening inequalities arising from the economic effects of the pandemic, and it's sad and embarrassing that Oakland's current budget is so heavily skewed towards policing, an institution that currently exists to protect entrenched power in an ever-more-unequal society.
The gross behavior of OPD in the recent protests presents yet another reason why our community would be safer without military-esque thugs patrolling our neighborhoods. Cut OPD's general fund allocation by at least 50%, and do it now.
I am a resident and public school teacher in Oakland and I stand with the Anti-Police Terror Project and other Black leaders in our community in demanding the city of Oakland to defund the Oakland Police Department by at least 50% and reinvest in much needed social services that actually will promote feelings of safety in the community (unlike police presence).
Specific demands are:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
4. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
I am resident of District 4 and I would like to echo the countless community members voicing their anger over the historical and recent behavior of the Oakland Police Department and to demand that:
1. OPDs share of the general fund be reduced by 50%, or $150M, and that
2. This money instead be invested in the critical resources needed to keep our community safe and strong, such as housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, mental health workers, and so on.
3. I also demand the discontinuation of both unauthorized overtime by OPD and
4. The discontinuation of general fund dollars being used to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence.
Oakland is supposed to be one of the most progressive cities in the country and yet the long history of corruption and violence within our police department continues to harm our community, and especially our Black and Brown community members, and the time is NOW to put an end to this.
I am resident of district 1. I would like to advocate for the following:
• Assume the Pessimistic scenario and restructure the budget accordingly. The tactic of budgeting the “baseline” forecast scenario is flawed and will result in another painful budget exercise in the near future
• Big picture prioritization: The mayor notes the following priorities (Holistic Community Safety, Housing, Economic & Cultural Security, Vibrant, Sustainable Infrastructure, Responsive, Trustworthy Government. The priorities are misaligned with our budget. Out of our $1.65B annual budget
o ~$330M on our Police department, 25% of city employees
o ~$200M on underfunded liabilities – and an unfunded liability of ~$2.7B
o $79M on OUSD
o $29M on Homelessness
o $77M on Affordable Housing
o $113M on Street paving
o We are under funding community programs in favor or Law Enforcement and pensions plans. Propose reallocating 25-50% of the police budget to our priorities and reforms to our unfunded liabilities
I am an Oakland native and resident and I stand with Black leaders in the community in demanding that city council:
1.Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
My name is Rebecca Voropaeff and I am an Oakland resident writing to urge you to defund OPD.
I support the spirit of the proposal by Nikki Fortunato Bas: "to reallocate (from the police budget) at least $25 million towards improving safety and providing the services our residents really need," but this proposal does NOT go far enough!
As Oakland residents, we, therefore, demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.
I am a resident of District 3. I oppose this item. OPD must be defunded (by at least 50%) and those funds transferred into education, non-police emergency personnel, mental health care programs and workers, and other community services. Please listen to your constituents. We do not want the OPD on our streets; we want positive, helpful services!
My name is J. Kris Mordecai, and I am a District 2 resident.
OPD takes almost half of Oakland's general fund each year, and that percentage has skyrocketed in the past two decades — consuming desperately needed resources from essential city programs and vital services.
The investment in policing has NOT made us safer. OPD remains an embarrassment to the city and a lethal threat to Oakland’s Black and Brown communities.
As Oakland residents, we demand that you take immediate action to ensure the following:
1. Reduce OPD’s allocation from the General Fund by 50% (roughly $150 Million)
2. Disallow unauthorized overtime by OPD
3. Discontinue use of general fund dollars to pay for settlements due to police murder, misconduct, and negligence
4. Invest in housing, jobs, youth programs, restorative justice, and mental health workers to keep the community safe.