City of Oakland: Officials say next week’s finance meeting may detail possible budget cuts #NewsUnitedStates

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — “The coliseum sale is not the silver bullet to a decades old, fiscal issues that we have here in the City of Oakland. That’s an issue that is decades old. What it will help, is soften the landing,” says Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who answered questions ABC7’s Midday Live.

The city is now operating under a contingency budget, which was triggered on October 1, due due to a change in the Oakland coliseum sale.

On Tuesday, Oakland City Council Member Janani Ramachandran spoke to ABC7 News after a special finance meeting was canceled.

“This is the third time that myself, Council Member (Treva) Reid and Council Member (Noel) Gallo, have attempted to schedule a special meeting to give the public a sense of transparency, on where we are with our budget,” says Ramachandran.

But in an email obtained by the blog, the Oakland Observer, and verified to ABC7 News by the mayor’s office, shows that one meeting was canceled because Ramachandran had to leave early and Gallo could not attend.

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Tuesday’s special meeting was canceled because staff is still pouring over the result the fourth quarter revenue numbers, which has always been scheduled for discussion at the regularly scheduled October 22 meeting.

“This is a normal process. I know that some council members want to politicize things because it’s an election year, but at the end of the day, it’s normal. We wait for the Q4 and Q1 so we have the information, we can then come back and make adjustments to our budget,” explains Mayor Thao.

At that meeting, discussion will begin about possible cuts, which will likely be phased in.

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In the meantime, the Oakland Police Officers’ Association issued a strongly worded statement raising concerns that the budget deficit is likely, “far high than known.”

That’s true, according to an October 10 informational report put out by the city’s finance department. It shows an operating deficit of almost $80 million dollars. But that report also states that $30 million dollars in overspending is, “driven by spending in public safety departments.”

And overtime spending report prepared by Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell will be discussed at the October 22 meeting. It shows that OPD has gone over its overtime budget by almost $26 million dollars.

“We are at 683 officers. And that number is totally not what we can handle with the volume of calls that come to our city,” explains Sergeant Huy Nguyen, President of Oakland Police Officers Association.

Sergeant Nguyen says a staffing study is expected to be released later this year, which will highlight the problems caused by continual staffing shortages. He argues the city using overtime also saves money by not paying benefits to for new officers.

Mayor Thao says since March, the city has frozen all hiring and limited staff travel.