Council Tells July 6 hearing:
No 802 Police, Now Pay Up

The City's Community Policing Advisory Board (CPAB) held a public meeting on Measure Y for July 6. Councilmembers and high City officials told us many details, but it boiled down to:

1) Oakland will not get the 802 police promised by Measure Y and its supporters before late in 2007 at the earliest, and
2) We think it's just fine and dandy, not to mention perfectly legal, to collect the Measure Y taxes from you right now.

Councilmember Jean Quan and city attorney John Russo insulted Oakland voters by telling the audience that Measure Y only requires the City to "appropriate" on paper for officers, with no obligation actually to provide them. Even as a legal interpretation, this conclusion is weak. As for the political arrogance of it, they in effect said, anyone who believed their insistent pledges about 802 police last year was a sucker.

Certainly, anyone who ever believes the current councilmembers about a future proposal for a parcel tax would be extremely naive.

There was another lesson from this event. City officials made it quite clear:

3) There is no plan over the next ten years (the term of Measure Y) to bring Oakland's understaffed police department up to anywhere near the 1,100 officers we need.

Instead, councilmember Quan prattled on about budget limitations. At most, she offered, you could fight for a proportionate share for the police department along with all the others, if and when there is a bit more money to spend down the road. The other officials, including councilmember De La Fuente's assistant Carlos Plazola and mayoral aide Libby Schaaf, simply sat in silence when the question was asked about a long term plan for staffing up Oakland's police.

Attendance at the event was less than two dozen, after subtracting the City Hall crowd. Our compliments to David Flack, who did the best job possible with the stifling format of written questions. That setup meant audience members could not follow up after an official's unsatisfactory answer, but Flack often followed up himself. A few Oaklanders wanted to speak in the open forum segment at the end. However, all the City officials left before open forum began.