Despite ongoing budget woes attributed to OPD overspending, including a down-grade of Oakland's bond rating by at least one agency, Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins’ administration proposes increasing the General Purpose Fund [GPF] spending on OPD in the FY 2025-27 biennial budget. Jenkins’ proposed FY 2025-26 OPD budget is $20 MM greater than FY 2024-25’s initial budget in the biennial, growing from $343 MM to $363.8MM. According to the 2nd quarter projection for actual FY 2024-25 OPD spending, that’s $2MM above OPD’s massive over spending in FY 2024-25.
OPD's budget is even higher in the second year of the biennial, at $392 MM, for a total two year GPF spending of $757 MM. Jenkins' proposed total OPD GPF biennial budget is $78.6MM above what was initially budgeted in FY 2023-25.
At the same time, the Jenkins’ budget would drastically slash the GPF budget of the independent Police Commission and the Office of the Inspector General. The Community Police Review Agency [CPRA] would be capped at its current capacity, leaving behind a planned staffing expansion to assume the role of OPD’s Internal Affairs department that was on track just two years ago.
How the Budgeting Process Works
The City's budgeting process can be a complicated process for residents to follow. The Mayor and Council create a two year set of projections and proposals every biennial budget period in odd fiscal years. The main focus in the budget is the General Purpose Fund [GPF], but the City also controls a variety of special funds that have various requirements and restrictions. Some departments get a lot of special funds money, some don't get any. Oakland's police get additional special funds from ballot measures passed to increase police staffing and ceasefire efforts, but those aren't tracked in this article*.
The biennial budget can function more like a roadmap, and especially in the second year of the budget, revenue assumptions and spending plans change. The Council, Mayor and City Administrator can return throughout the year to change the budget in different ways with budget amendments. City and Council also return in the second year of the biennial for a reassessment called the "mid-cycle budget"—that can also change the budget's second year radically. That was the case in FY 2024, first with the mid-cycle budget process, then with the implementation of the contingency budget when Coliseum sale didn't materialize.
At best, though the biennial budget sets parameters for both years, it often really only creates a budget for the first year, given how much can change in the mid-cycle for the second. This article compares Jenkins' current biennial budget proposal for OPD sworn staffing and other expenses to the biennial budget passed in July 2023. It also notes how much OPD actually spent in the FY 2023-25 biennial, which as typical, was far above what was budgeted.
Jenkins' Budget Appears to Inflate OPD Sworn Staffing to Unachievable Levels
In July 2024, facing a significant budget imbalance, the Thao administration lowered OPD’s budgeted staffing from 696 officers to 678. In the contingency budget several months later, staffing was reduced more drastically to 600.
But those were on paper reductions—budgeted staffing is just the staffing target that’s envisioned in the budget, not the actual number of police. The Oakland Police Officer’s Association [OPOA] contract with the City does not allow lay offs of sworn staff and thus OPD can't reduce its police staffing except through natural attrition. The City cancelled the last two academies of the fiscal year in late 2024, but even with that 6 month break in production of police officers, OPD’s staffing is about 669 as of this writing, well above the level set in the contingency budget and not that much lower than the original number budgeted last July.
Jenkins’ budget appears to set a sworn staffing level of 739** for each year of the budget. That's well over 60 officers more than there will be in the OPD for months to come at cost of additional tens of millions. By the time the first academy of FY 2025-26 graduates at the end of the year, OPD will likely have around 630-640 officers. That's around 100 officers fewer than Jenkins' proposed budgeted number.
A review of historic academy production and expected attrition rates suggests that OPD won’t likely be able to add much from the first academy to that number–nor get close to 739 officers even after 6 academies at the end of FY 26-27. To achieve 739 officers by the end of the biennial, the budgeted six academies would need to produce 30 graduates each. But public records of academy graduations obtained by this publication show that the OPD has only had one graduating class of 30 in the past 5 years. The average graduating class since 2019 has been 22, and in the past two years has been as low as 18 and 12. Jenkins' budget book predicts an attrition rate of 5 officers monthly. Even considering the possibility that OPD might have a larger than typical first class due to pent up demand from prospective trainees after two cancelled academies, getting close to 739 officers seems unlikely.
Jenkins Budget Paper Only Reductions
Although Thao initially sought to decrease overtime expenditures in her original biennial budget proposal of FY 2023-25 to about $24MM yearly, overtime costs ended FY 2023-24 at over double that, a staggering $55 MM, according to quarterly revenue and expenditure reports. Conceding to the reality, Thao then nearly doubled the starting overtime budget in the mid-cycle process for 2024-25 to $42MM.
After the radical cuts of the contingency budget were enacted by the City Administrator with Council support in October 2024, the CAO reduced that overtime budget level to about $22MM. But by the time the ink was dry on the reductions, OPD had already exceeded the limit halfway through the fiscal year in December. Based on the overspending, the City Administrator dialed back the reduction target to meet the actual spending, instead of the other way around. The FY 2024-25 2nd quarter revenue and expenditure report predicts OPD will not only spend above its reduced overtime limit, it will spend $6 MM over the $42 MM originally budgeted as well***.
Jenkins’ budget statement claims to ‘cut’ OPD officer overtime budget when compared to last fiscal year by $9.6MM and $8MM [$33.5MM and $38.2MM in each fiscal year, respectively]. But that's a "cut" only when compared to the adjusted overtime budget of July 2024, which was a near-doubling of what was originally proposed in the biennial of FY 2023-25.
It’s likely that the inflated staffing level—with over 60 vacant positions to derive "savings" from—is an attempt to keep the much more visible overspending in the overtime budget at lower levels. A larger budgeted staffing level than boots on the ground officers means that OPD can defray some overtime costs to the savings from the vacancies. But defraying the costs of overtime to the inflated staffing budget will obscure how much the OPD is actually spending on overtime, confusing analysis for the mid-cycle budgeting next year and budgeting for years to come.
And without spending controls there’s a chance that OPD could still overspend its overtime budget. A study conducted by city union IFPTE 21 found that OPD’s overtime spending has little relationship to staffing or crime levels and notes that much of the OT is officer-initiated. The study suggests that overtime overages will continue without focused controls, leading to year on year increases regardless of how much is initially invested into one side of the equation or the other.
Opaque Operations Costs Increase
Jenkins’ budget also publicly reveals significant details for the first time about OPD’s opaque operations costs—Jenkins’ budget proposes spending a total of $3.5 MM on vehicle rentals but with no explanation of what the rental costs go toward paying. The Oakland Observer has requested more information from the City on what the budget would cover, but has received no response to date.
Through another source, OO has obtained data that shows that the OPD has budgeted 2/3 to 3/4 of a million dollars annually for the rentals, though it has often underspent the budget. The FY 2025-27 budgets for rentals is a significant increase, though there’s no explanation for the cost. The line item is especially relevant as OPD has requested a $5 MM outlay for a new fleet of patrol vehicles.
Oakland Police Commission and Oversight Agencies Face Defunding in Jenkins’ Budget
While the OPD gets budget increases, the charter-mandated oversight bodies that independently watchdog the police aren’t as lucky. Unlike other department narrative sections, the Oakland Police Commission [OPC] has only one section, “reductions”. The Jenkins proposal cuts an administrative analyst position that is currently vacant in the OPC, as well as the OPC’s contracting funding, which it uses to pay for an independent counsel. That slashes the OPC’s budget by half, to around $500K, down from around $1.1 MM a year in the last biennial. Without independent counsel, the body of volunteers may find it difficult to do almost any part of its job, and will have to rely on subject matter expertise of its members—or the City Attorney’s Office, which is also the attorney for the City and police.
The Office of the Inspector General [OIG], which has only been in operation for two years and just got a new director, will have almost all of its capacity slashed, unable to fulfill most of the processes of independent oversight of OPC—the OIG’s policy analyst and its auditor’s positions are frozen in Jenkins’ budget, with only a slim $122 K fund to hire outside contractors in Jenkins’ budget proposal. As CPRA interim director noted at last Thursday's meeting, the OIG will lack the ability to fulfill most of its mandates due to the defunding.
On paper, the Community Police Review Agency [CPRA] appears relatively untouched from last year’s budgeting levels at around $5.1 MM in Jenkin’s budget proposal. But the CPRA budgeting story is more complicated than a comparison of last year to this year's funding initially reveals. Former Mayor Sheng Thao budgeted over a dozen additional new staff to the CPRA in the second year of the biennial, FY 24-25, in expectation of a long-planned shift of the IAD to CPRA. In Thao's proposal, CPRA’s budget would have been nearly doubled, with a much larger savings in the OPD, as IAD officers were freed for policing and the CPRA spent less on each staff member.
Though it's not likely the transition could have happened as soon as Thao predicted in FY 2024-25, it’s not likely to happen at all now any time soon. The process of beefing up the CPRA appears to have been put on indefinite hold, leaving a functional staffing of 18. The money-saving transfer of IAD to the CPRA, which envisioned hiring 20 or more investigators and staff is likely to fall by the wayside without concerted focus of the City Administrator or Council.
*the total police budget is actually higher in both years when special funds are added in—that was an additional $35MM in FY 2023-25 and an additional $55MM in proposed FY 2025-27. The total police budget in FY 2023-25 was $715MM; Jenkins total proposed OPD budget for FY 2025-27 is $810.8MM. This report focuses solely on the GPF spending.
** a discrepancy and vague language in Jenkins’ “transmittal” memo that was the basis of the first reporting for media, and the introductory report to Council for Thursday’s meeting makes it unclear if the Mayor’s intention is to hold the budget at 678 with a goal of increasing to 739, or to budget at 739 for each year of the biennial at the outset. A review of the budget book’s line item funded sworn positions, which total 737 sworn officers, plus Chief and Assistant Chief, indicates its the latter.
*** per the second quarter expenditure report, OPD is likely to spend a new high of $55 MM in overtime, by the end of FY 2024-25 in July, but $7.3MM of that overtime is ostensibly reimbursable that is to be paid by third parties that contract the OPD for large events or security for non-city public works. That being said, whether or not OPD recoups a significant level of reimbursable overtime is a question that has never been answered.
Update: Mayor's Office/CAO Budgeted Incorrect Sworn Staffing, $30 MM OPD Budget Difference
In an update of "errata" presented to City Council upon the introduction of the Mayor's budget on Wednesday, Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins and other City officials, admitted the City erred in setting the budget for OPD sworn staffing. Originally, as OO correctly reported above, the Mayor's budget had set budgeted sworn staffing at 739 officers. Although vague language in the budget narrative section appeared inconclusive, a review of the line item of sworn officer classifications by this publication revealed that OPD was initially costed at 739 officers in the budget book published last week.
The errata now clarifies that the budgeted level should be set at 678 officers—the level budgeted initially in the FY 24-25 OPD budget by then Mayor Sheng Thao. The new narrative removes confusion over that budgeted level, and the latter contingency budget level of 600 officers.
That also means that the OPD was initially over-budgeted by $30 MM in the two year budget—the errata now clarifies OPD's GPF budget in FY 2025-26 is proposed at $350 MM, instead of $363.8; in FY 2026-27 the OPD budget is $375.75 MM, instead of $392 MM, a decrease of $30 MM.
Along with the changes, the errata also has the staffing projections over the next two years on which the budgeting is based. The projections are much more historically accurate and fiscally responsible representations of attrition and academy yield than in previous budget years. OPD and City predict police will not likely reach the 678 officer mark by June 2027 even in the more optimistic prediction. In March, this publication presented seldom seen data on academy yield and attrition which back the more conservative OPD growth projections. More on this to come.
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