Reviewing Mayor Brown's Failure
to Staff the Police Department

The Chronicle's review of Jerry Brown's terms as mayor of Oakland mostly let Brown himself deliver the message. However, ordinary voices of Oakland residents slipped through:

"I give Jerry credit for a lot of things, especially fixing up downtown, but crime in this city is still really bad – totally unacceptable," said Greg Sprenkle, who lives in the Maxwell Park section of East Oakland and works near the Rockridge BART Station. His comments were echoed by many other voters across the city.

Over seven years, Brown has tried several strategies to fight violent crime, but critics say some of those tactics came at the expense of fighting nonviolent crime like prostitution and car break-ins.

Residents in neighborhoods where violence is not an issue bitterly complain that it can take an hour or two for police to respond...

"There needs to be enough cops for the bad neighborhoods and the good ones," said Dennis Udo, a Brown supporter who lives in the Laurel District of East Oakland. "Crime is still pretty bad in the flatlands, and the better neighborhoods are totally ignored."
(Excerpts. Story appeared Jan. 30, 2006. Full text at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/29/BAGJDGVD4T1.DTL )

Understaffing of the police department comes through as the core issue. Oakland has half a police department. Are Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland and most major cities using twice as many police as they need, or is Oakland near a breakdown of public safety? All signs point to the latter.

Brown complains in the interview that residents do not support paying higher taxes for more law enforcement. Tax measures in 2002 and March 2004 failed, but with a third try in November 2004, Measure Y passed.

Left OPD smaller, morale lower

Here is the major failure on Brown's part. The mayor went along with the council's immoral, even criminal, manipulations of City funds. The 2002 vote supported more police but did not vote the taxes. The March 2004 vote defeated Measure R because councilmember Nancy Nadel wrote it to grab money for social programs while stiffing the police department.

Measure Y passed because councilmembers reluctantly accepted strict requirements that the money could be collected only when the City can provide 802 officers. As soon as the vote was in, the council violated Measure Y. The City is collecting the taxes but has fewer police (below 700, fewer than the 734 we had when the council wrote Measure Y in July 2004).

The councilmembers have scammed the public again and again, not only on Measure Y but also on Measure Q (libraries) and Measure DD (Lake Merritt trees).

Betraying their promises about how money will be used, the council then steers the funds to favored developers, and Jerry Brown is right there with the council, on his knees to Phil Tagami and such.

Brown has also gone along as the council disperses money to dozens of tiny, showcase, ineffectual social programs. The recipients include PUEBLO, whose officers embezzled $185,000 and used public grant money to tell us how to vote on a ballot measure. The City also financed Oakland Community Housing, a slumlord sued for letting mice run wild and exposing tenants to dangerous electrical wiring.

Public safety is priority one for a city government. Jerry Brown failed, and he is "moving on." Meanwhile, Oakland is saddled with a council of crooks. Two of the councilmembers are running for mayor, while the leading candidate, outsider Ron Dellums, has yet to address the issue of Oakland's understaffed police department.