Replacement Grant for Police

On Sept. 28, 2011, the federal government announced that it is giving Oakland a grant to pay for approximately 25 officers for three years. Mayor Quan immediately sent out a publicity blitz trying to garner glory for herself. She did not mention that the grant from the COPS program is merely a follow-on to a 2009 federal grant. That three-year grant expires just as the new grant kicks in.

Quan did acknowledge that the new officers must be trained, and "we will need more funds for police academies, that is one reason I put Measure I on the ballot." (Quan email newsletter 1-37. Please note, grammar police, we merely reproduce the mayor's comma splice.)

Not so! Measure I, yet another parcel tax from Quan, includes absolutely no language that guarantees police academies. Nor anything else for that matter. If Quan wants to spend the revenue on her beloved Chabot Observatory and hand it out to operators of failed social programs, she can.

Meanwhile, on average about five officers resign and retire every month.