Non-Consent Calendar and Consent Calendar Divided in Two Separate Meetings
There will be a novel structure for Tuesday’s Council deliberations, two meetings scheduled back to back. A Special Meeting at 12pm and a regular Concurrent meeting of the City Council and Geologic Hazard Abatement District Board at 3:30 pm. Most of the City’s non-consent items will be heard at the special meeting—normally, Council’s Rules of Procedure would require non-consent items to be heard only at 5pm and afterward, but those rules don’t apply to a special meeting.
The second meeting starting at 3:30 pm will consist of the consent calendar and two public hearings, plus a report on staffing that appears to have been mistakenly agendized as a statutorily required public hearing, but does not have that requirement. It’s all a bit confusing, and to this publication’s knowledge, the two-tier meetings are not a structure that’s been tried before.
Tuesday June 3 Special Meeting 12 pm
Office of the Inspector General’s OPD Staffing Study
The Oakland City Council requested an OPD staffing study by a third party analyst in November, 2023. Overseen by the Office of the Inspector General, the study was leaked before it was complete, with headline that the consulting company PFM Financial Advisors LLC did a time and use study of current police baseline needs and found that the OPD would need nearly 900 officers to do the same work it was doing in 2022-23.
The numbers roughly correspond to many estimates over the years that gauge from 800 to 1000 as the appropriate officer need. But the report carries an important caveat. And the number corresponds to the OPD practice of using overtime to mirror the work roles of a much larger sworn police force, including special enforcement activities that take up the majority of OPD's overtime usage, and extension of shift, the next highest overtime usage. The study does not weigh in on whether the work is an absolute requirement, being done efficiently or with best practices. The report notes that the staffing baseline claim is not intended to be viewed as an “ideal”.
Regardless, the study comes as several presentations by OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell have made very clear the limits of officer recruitment in Oakland, with Mitchell and OPD clearly stating OPD will not likely reach even the FY 25-27 budgeted level of 678 officers at any point in the cycle. Given the data cited by Mitchell, even if Oakland had the additional two academies in FY 24-25 that were cancelled due to the contingency budget, producing the aspirational average of 25 trainees per academy, the City’s most optimistic projections would place staffing at 700 by June 2027. The City could not reach an 877 level of staffing in many years of academy production at the current graduation rate.
—Resolution To Execute Agreements For Implementation Of Measure A Transaction And Use Tax
Measure A, the sales tax ballot measure that passed in April, is a local tax addition to the state sales tax, but the State still has to levy it through the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. The CDTFA levies taxes for local governments like Oakland at a fee—the funds from the additional .5% will cost Oakland an additional administrative fee of 1.16 cents per dollar of revenue generated. There’s also a one time $175K cost. The legislation will authorize the agreement necessary at state level.
—Measures M, N, C, NN, D, Q, AA, Y, And MM Fiscal Year 2025-26 Cost-Of Living Tax Adjustment, Fixing Rate Of Tax, And Levying Tax
Most of the City’s parcel tax measures have a regular cost of living increase built into the legislation, and similar legislation is brought periodically to the Council, which adjusts the taxes to the currently calculated cost of living for the Bay Area. The adjustments are written into the ballot measure language at the time the public votes for the increases.
—Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-25 Third Quarter (Q3) Revenue And Expenditures (R&E)
OO reported highlights of the report which was published several weeks ago.
—Fiscal Year 2026-30 Five-Year Financial Forecast
Oakland’s Consolidated Fiscal Policy mandates that City staff produce a 5-year fiscal forecast to go along with every biennial budget. The required study, usually carried out by a third party contractor, has for several years projected future budget deficits due to an imbalance of how much revenue the city generates compared to its required costs—though the forecast notes that the City’s revenues will improve slightly, including an expected, though eventual, improvement in Real Estate Transfer Tax. Thus, the forecast predicts the large budget imbalance won’t grow over the next five years, a relative nominal decrease is expected instead, but nothing that will really affect the ongoing challenges for Oakland.
Other issues the City will need to contend with are the expenses throwing off the mix, mostly led by outsized and growing payroll and pension costs, led overwhelmingly by the OPD, and to a lesser degree, OFD. The report also notes that both OPOA and IAFF MOUs will terminate in mid-2026—the city has risks and opportunities in negotiating new ones.
Oakland will have to solve this problem by growing revenues, better managing expenses or a combination of both. Outside of the imbalance, other challenges could be on the horizon, according to the report, including vehicle fleet replacement, deferred maintenance on the City’s facilities, necessary building of new facilities and returning to maintenance of effort rules.
—Campaign Reform Act: Temporary Increase In Contribution Limits
When voters approved Measure W, the Democracy Dollars program, they also nullified Oakland’s previous campaign finance and limit system, which would have been rendered superfluous and conflicting. Democracy Dollars has provisions that allows its $ 2 MM/year estimated cost to be put off if there are other across the board reductions during a declaration of fiscal necessity, and this will be the second biennial that is the case. But in the meantime, Oakland has reduced campaign finance limits, and no limited public financing to supplement the campaign coffers of less capacitated candidates. Last year, Oakland temporarily restored the public financing system for 2024 elections only.
CMs Kevin Jenkins and Janani Ramachandran are introducing legislation that would raise the limits from $650 and $1200, for individuals and broad-based committees, to $900 and $1800 dollars respectively, the limit in 2022 before the passage of Measure W. Limited campaign financing would sunset in 2029, regardless of whether Democracy Dollars is in place. The duo’s legislation also has a rider that raises office holder campaign fundraising limits.
The Public Ethics Commission issued a companion review of the legislation, where it remains neutral on raising of the campaign finance limits, and suggest such limits if passed, should be delayed to July to allow PEC to prepare and to sunset them at the end of the 2026 election cycle to assess the impacts. PEC opposes the office holder funding limits increase and suggests that limited campaign financing be kept in operation until Democracy Dollars is in effect. The PEC notes no office holder limit increases are necessary in most cases because elected leaders have the capacity to raise funds independently that do not pass-through the office [beheasted payments].
Regular Concurrent meeting of the City Council and Geologic Hazard Abatement District Board, 3pm
The Council’s consent calendar and two statutorily required hearings will be held at a second meeting that begins at 3:30pm. It’s possible that items could be pulled to the consent calendar for further discussion. The required hearings are: a
FY2 25-26 Landscaping & Lighting Assessment District hearing and the new Master Fee Schedule which will adjust costs and fees to the public.
The LLAD established in 1989 by California law, will generate a projected total of about $19 MM in assessed property taxes–but the report notes that statutorily, the LLAD assessments have not increased since 1993 and can no longer support the same level of expenditures in the various parks and lighting areas that it has in the past. Over the years, the LLAD has not been able to continue the level of service initially established without running a deficit.
Amending the FY 2024-25 Master Fee Schedule
The new Master Fee Schedule will raise some fees to the public, notably the Rent Program Service Fee, an annual payment which landlords must pay to the city to support oversight and tenant protections. The fee would be raised from current 101 to 137 dollars—50% of the fee can be transferred as a rent increase to tenants. Oakland Animal Services will also have significant increases in some public facing fees, as the program struggles under significant budget slashing and managerial challenges [Assistant City Administrator Joe Devries is the interim Director of the department, doing the work part time in addition to his other duties]. Economic and Workforce Development will create a new late application fees for special event permits.
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