There was little good news in Oakland on Monday, when city leaders said they’ve found enough money to move in enough places that they can avoid officially declaring a state of emergency, at least for now. But that does not mean the crisis is over.
The focus now is on what and who might be cut.
“It definitely puts people on edge,” said Julian Ware, vice president of IFPTE Local 2. “It gets worse when you think, ‘This is a holiday season. You’re talking two or three weeks before Christmas.’
Ware, a union leader and an IT worker for the city of Oakland, was among those who took up the City Council’s discussion of the $130 million budget deficit.
“It really puts people on edge because it’s kind of an uncertainty,” he said. “What should I do now? Should I apply somewhere else?”
The city is still weighing various options, but there are still fire outages at fire stations, a freeze on police recruitment and a slew of cuts to smaller programs across the city.
“This calls for the elimination of the Ambassador program,” said Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson. “To the tune of $1.1 million.”
The discussion about the impending cuts attracted a large audience. More than 80 people have registered to speak about the impact of various budget changes on residents.
“You have moved the parking enforcement technicians out of the parking lots to address the problem of abandoned vehicles,” one speaker told council members. ‘That’s what you used them for. So you take them out of abandoned vehicles and put them back in the parking lot. Who is going to deal with these abandoned vehicles?”
“It’s actually really sad. It just breaks my heart to see the budget crisis that we’re going through right now,” Renia Webb said. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Webb looked into the meeting as Oakland’s newest official candidate for mayor. How to solve the structural problems that created the budget crisis will undoubtedly be a central discussion as Oakland tries to resolve its political uncertainty. after Sheng Thao’s recall.
“With integrity,” Webb said. “With transparency. Using our tax dollars for what they were intended. To clean our streets. To support our police.”
And all these questions will remain unanswered for a while. As the race for mayor takes shape and budget discussions continue.
“All the vulnerabilities that people have during this time. It’s incredibly disturbing,” Ware said. “Especially since we’ve been talking about this for over a year.”
Budget work will continue this week. On the 17th the council meets and declares the office of mayor vacant. The council president will become the interim mayor, beginning a run that could see four different mayors between now and April.
As for potential job cuts, such as those in the city’s ambassador program, the city is currently working on a timeline for announcements of those potential layoffs.
