Oakland Observer Week Ending 6/4/2023: Two Oaklands Address Public Safety; Department Heads Drill Down on Thao Budget; Substantial Damage Amendment for Just Cause Headed to Council Tuesday...

Two Oaklands Address Public Safety at Venues Separated by More Than Distance

Disparate Oakland constituencies addressed public safety at two very different venues last Tuesday. At a special Council meeting on the mayor’s budget, dozens of residents advocating on behalf of organizations that provide services through the Department of Violence Prevention [DVP] pleaded with Council members to reconsider Mayor Sheng Thao’s reduced budget for the agency. Meanwhile, across town in North Oakland, a large group of mostly white self-identified District 1 residents attended a public safety forum held by Dan Kalb, who left the Council meeting early to convene it.

The back-to-back gatherings were a study in high-impact contrasts. A mostly Black and Brown group that filled the Chamber to maximum occupancy came to demand that Council and mayor redistribute funding to the DVP from the Oakland police budget. Then, mid-way through the Council meeting, the DVP’s Interim Chief Kentrell Killens and D1 Councilmember Kalb left the Council meeting to host the public safety gathering in North Oakland, where an often bizarre mix of voices screamed at and heckled those on the stage and, sometimes, each other.

A Five Year Old Agency with Increasing Workload and Funding

The DVP is a relatively young City agency. Founded in 2017 but only empowered with staff and budget in 2019, the organization has grown to supply direct services to victims of crime and those at risk of crime involvement, while distributing funding to community-based organizations [CBOs] that do most of the in-community work of life-coaching, intervention and mediation. The DVP began ramping up in its first year of the 2019-21 biennial, and went from $500K in '19-20 to a total of $16.5MM in '20-21–$1.5 MM of that was additional GPF funding that Council redirected in mid-cycle amendments from OPD funding, nearly doubling former Mayor Libby Schaaf’s GPF allocation. The remainder came from Measure Z and other funds.

Schaaf, in her FY 2021-23 budget, baselined that level of yearly GPF funding for about $3.6MM in addition to the Measure Z funds. But in budget deliberations in July 2021, Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Kalb led the Council in redirecting $17MM of the police funding Schaaf proposed for the biennial budget to the DVP, increasing its budget significantly in both years and especially in grants to the third-party organizations that do significant amounts of violence prevention work. DVP’s share of the GPF budget went from a total of $500K in the FY '19-20 budget allocation; to $3.2MM in FY '20-21; to $8MM in FY '21-22 and $13.5MM in FY '22-23. Combined with the Measure Z and other funds, the DVP received a $28MM budget in FY 2022-23.

Thao’s allocation of $9MM GPF in the first year and $10MM GPF in the second, now brings the DVP budget back to around $21MM [inclusive of Measure Z funding] in each budget year. According to Killens in his presentation to Council, that means cuts of $3.95MM per fiscal year to the grant funding for CBOs, down from the highs experienced in FY '22-23.

The key disagreement between the City and advocates is where the DVP’s de facto share of the GPF budget should normatively rest–at the higher proportion equivalent to the period when the agency received redirected funds from OPD, or at a lower level lacking that GPF boost. Dozens of advocates, practitioners and community members came to the meeting–and rallied in front of city hall before it– to demand it be the former.

Frontline Community Workers Say Keeping Current DVP Levels Crucial

During public comment, many front-line workers in the CBOs that carry out the majority of DVP’s work described the work they do, how it had been enhanced by the funding, and the impacts of losing the funding.

Nicole Gardner, the community outreach coordinator for Serenity House, Oakland, noted that 30 families were given crucial support and housing as they left an abuser thanks to DVP funding, allowing 85% of them to move on from the violence.

“It is urgent that the DVP is fully funded in order to support the work of grantees that are providing life-saving services for individuals and families in our communities where we go unnoticed. Serenity House receives funding through the DVP to provide emergency shelter and support services for women and children experiencing gender-based violence,” Gardner said.

Paula Cook, program coordinator at Serenity House, said that the funding had been instrumental in helping get children out of Child Protective Services [CPS] and reuniting them with mothers who'd been given safe housing away from abusers.

“I have gotten 52 women’s children back with that budget because we were able to house them, help them to get their children back and get them in a safe place … they left their abuser, they’re not with their abusers anymore.”

Dialing Back CBO Staffing After One-Time Funding Vs Continued Growth

The budget narrative published in the City’s adopted budget book in 2021 characterized FY '21-23’s increase as “one-time” funding, a framing advocates now dispute. But in presenting its plan for the funds in the deliberations in 2021, the DVP said it would use the greater funding to activate the department’s alternative safety plan, which was timelined in DVP reports as spanning 2022 to 2024. Advocates say the budget increase was a rightful expansion of needed services that should be maintained at the highest levels achieved during the 2022 budget, if not higher. Advocates are also pushing back against Thao’s claim that the budgeting will produce no layoffs–CBOs dependent on the funding would have to lay off staffing that relies on the funds, they argue.

Anne Marks, executive director of Youth Alive, criticized the one-time funding narrative in her public comment remarks and argued that the City should expect layoffs for the organizations.

“There was a Request for Qualifications [the first step in the contracting process for City services] that went out from the Department that was specifically for 2.5 years of funding. So I think [organizations] who staffed up during that time would have the reasonable expectation that those dollars were going to be for positions that existed for at least two and a half years … of course, these frontline workers employed by these CBOs are going to receive layoffs,” said Marks.

Ricardo Garcia-Acosta, director of programs at Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice [CURYJ], argued that the budget would mean layoffs and a large cut to services.

“We’re looking at losing close to $600K in this next budget cycle, which means all of our community healing work is gone. Neighborhood events, cleanups, block parties–we’ve been in the Fruitvale District at the plaza, ready to launch a series of events there.”

Council Structure a Barrier to Community Speakers

About 30 people spoke on behalf of increasing DVP’s funding during the nine-hour meeting, some waiting as long as six hours to speak. Most advocated continuing to take the funds from the police budget to maintain the higher DVP levels. Others argued that DVP should also take the cuts internally instead of cutting funding to CBOs.

But it’s clear that the number of speakers who came to demand that the DVP’s funding be kept at its current levels was even greater than those who ended up speaking. Bas allowed speakers to be called in shifts, but during the last shift, after 9 pm, Christina Flores, a program coordinator at CURYJ, held up a fistful of speaker cards which she said belonged to youth who’d had to leave by the time the meeting passed its sixth hour.

“These are all the pink slips of my young people that unfortunately did not get a chance to speak … this room was packed with elders, moms, dads, uncles, tíos, cousins, little brothers, siblings, and unfortunately they did not get that chance to speak about what’s going on in their communities,” Flores said.

Meanwhile, Kalb's Public Safety Forum Descends into Chaos

Kalb left the meeting shortly after the first round of speakers came to the podium to journey to a forum he’d called to address crime issues in his district. Ironically, given the cacophonous event to come, he missed a significant number public comments demanding more resources for DVP even if it meant fewer for OPD.

Kalb’s public safety meeting was attended by about 200 self-identifying D1 residents, almost all of them white–despite the fact that the 2020 census shows nearly 15% of D1 residents are Black. While many residents had good-faith concerns and harrowing stories of violent crime experiences, the event was punctuated with alarming statements that did more to shed light on many of Oakland’s long-standing racial tensions than its issues with public safety. Attendees also shouted each other down in what often devolved into screaming mayhem.

"Sit down, asshole," an attendee can be heard yelling at another attendee during this clip. According to Oaklandside editor, Darwin Bond Graham, a participant was heard asking the City to consider chopping” suspects’ hands off, a practice the speaker outlandishly characterized as standard punishment in the Moroccan justice system, a ridiculous assertion about the African state that has no basis in reality.

Though most of the back and forth and circular accusations and criticisms had little to do with any of Kalb’s actions or areas of control, the audience’s focus was often on the DVP’s role. The heckling of Killens included accusations of inefficacy and a dishonest narrative about crime at the agency, though there were no specific claims made.

But the jeers belie the fact that while the DVP reached unprecedented levels of funding and staffing from 2021 to 2023, Oakland’s worst violence–homicides and firearms assaults and shootings–began to decrease. And that decrease occurred at the same time that OPD experienced its lowest sworn staffing in years as a result of retirements and mass migrations to other law enforcement agencies and departments.

By early 2022, the worst acts of violence, shootings and murders began to decrease from the 2021 high, even while OPD entered a period of historic attrition and reached some of its lowest staffing in years–a situation that persists as the number of shootings and killings continue to decline, according to OPD weekly reports.

Council President Bas will publish amendments to the budget on June 12.

Department Heads Report Back on Impacts of Proposed Mayoral Budget

At the nine-hour budget meeting, several additional details were revealed about current staffing and budgeting and the potential impacts of budgetary changes on large departments like Police, Fire, Public Works, Housing and Community Development and the Department of Transportation. Smaller City departments that operate critical roles like Animal Services also gave reports detailing alarming cuts in service.

Some Noteworthy Revelations by Department Heads:

Housing and Community Development keeps most of its staffing in Thao’s budget, but Interim Director Emily Weinstein had several concerns:

1. Lack of capital budget, with $230MM in requests from “pipeline” affordable housing organizations, but only $68MM with which to respond;
2. The specifics of a merger with Community Homelessness Services, a unit currently in the Human Services Department, was of concern to Weinstein as none of it is spelled out. Weinstein said she hoped that the first year would be sufficient to plan for and evaluate the merger, but noted that significant vacancies in the department would make the eventual division of responsibilities harder to envision.

Interim City Administrator Steven Falk told Councilmembers that the merger would create a “continuum” that would develop a unified pipeline of homelessness services to housing. “In order to produce those units … we need capital and operating subsidy … the merger will provide better coordination with the county."

Human Services: A two year reduction of $2MM in Lake Merritt Lodge is not an actual reduction in funding as Human Services didn’t spend all of its funds in the last budget cycle. The funds carry over, allowing a reduction in this year’s allocation.

OPD: In the midst of presenting on the issue of academies, OPD and the Budget Administrator created confusion they seem to have been unable to resolve: at issue, which 5-6 month academies to count in which year. In her budget book, Thao says that there’s a reduction in the current budget to six academies. In the OPD presentation, Interim Chief Darren Allison told Councilmembers that there are only five academies in Thao’s budget. To make matters more confusing, records and statements reviewed by this publication show that seven academies will have begun in the 2021-23 biennial budget before July 1, with the 192nd beginning in mid-June but ending in December, the next budget year. The budget book's list and schedule of academies contradict the OPD's presentation, listing the 192nd as already having graduated in mid-May.

If Council maintains Thao’s OPD budget, 93 officer positions will be frozen. That number reflects the difference between the potential hireable academy graduates plus the usual attrition of five officers per month and the authorized number of police officers, 803. The authorized 803 officers is an aspirational number that Oakland hasn’t been close to achieving for over a decade for reasons having only to do with harsh academy graduation and attrition math.

OPD and the Thao administration envision that there will be no more than 710 police at any given time during the new budget period, given attrition and potential graduating classes. In the past, under Schaaf, most of the sworn police positions in that gap have been kept active, not frozen, allowing OPD to use salary savings to pay off the overtime for officers doing additional work to cover open positions. Freezing all the positions means that those positions won’t be funded at all in the budget, so the money won’t be available to offset overtime costs. On the other hand, in the past OPD has exceeded its overtime budget without limitations, making the question of which source OPD draws its personnel funding from apparently moot.

Regardless of the apparent reduced staff, a generous package of benefits and raises negotiated last year mean that OPD’s budget will be higher than it was this year, despite a reduction in active positions. OPD’s personnel costs, according to the City’s budget book, will be $9 MM more in FY '24-25 than they are in '22-23, despite the probability that OPD won’t grow appreciably, and may even shrink from its current staffing.

OFD: Chief Reginald Freeman spoke about his concerns on budget limitations.

–Rolling “brownouts” of engine service to meet budget limitations, saving about $10 MM per year. Freeman called the rotations, “a no win” recommendation, because of the cataclysmic potential of fires in the hills, and the ongoing emergency fire and medical needs of the flatlands, where the majority of calls for service originate. Freeman also noted that calls for service have grown yearly from 51,000 in 2020 to 67,638 in 2022 .

–reducing lateral academies, with $1.6 MM savings per year by reducing the two academies per year to one per year, limiting the number of new firefighters to replace retiring ones.

–reducing emergency vehicle replacement by $3.5 MM in the second year. Freeman said that the age of their vehicle equipment has created substandard provision levels.

–reducing the Emergency Operations Center Contingency funding by 2 MM each year. Freeman said this could be a critical move, since Oakland is statistically likely to soon experience a large fire incident like the great firestorm of the 90s.

–Freeman said that the recommended frozen Fire Marshal position would have implications in keeping buildings in compliance.

Animal Services: Assistant to the Director Ben Winkleblack told Council that the agency's overhead budget cut of $140k in the first year, and $70k in the second would impact outside spay and neuter vetrinary care, leading to longer stays at the shelter before adoption. Winkleblack said that about 30% of the annual 5,000 spay/neuter procedures are done with on-call vets and called this a “substantial challenge”.

At Council Tuesday:

On Consent:

Request for City Auditor Investigation on ESO Ventures

Construction Contract for Mosswood Rec Center

Becker Boards Billboards Contract, with Rebuttal from City Staff

The Economic and Workforce Development Department [EWD] have included their preliminary review of a report that Becker Boards brought to the Community and Economic Development meeting where their proposal was introduced. Becker’s report claims that only three of the 18 signs in Clear Channel’s offer are viable.

But in their review, EWD finds that only three of the sites are non-viable [which they originally flagged]. EWD says that six of the sites are “potentially viable,” while nine are unquestionably viable. CMs Kevin Jenkins, Noel Gallo and Rebecca Kaplan have also included their own report, based on conversations they claim occurred between Gallo and Caltrans that support the Becker narrative.

EWD still maintains that Becker’s arguments are overreaching or based on undocumented supposition–they say that the six sites that remain in some doubt will likely be viable sites, but that more time is needed to confirm them. EWD's central position is that council is moving too fast on the Becker deal, which they regard as below market rate and potentially a poorer agreement for the City. But in their report, the CMs take up Becker's arguments.

An example of the dispute: Becker claims that the City property on which one of Clear Channel’s signs would be placed has a deed restriction that would forbid placement. EWD staff argue that the claim isn’t necessarily true, adding that Caltrans has not ruled out most of the sites Becker claims are unviable.

On Non-Consent

Just Cause Substantial Damage Amendment:

The Bas/Kalb proposed amendment to the Just Cause ordinance, which was removed from moratorium-ending legislation in April, returns to Council Tuesday, this time put forth by CMs Nikki Fortunato Bas and Kevin Jenkins. Jenkins, along with Janani Ramachandran, were instrumental in removing the amendment during the original deliberations on the moratorium ending legislation.

The original amendment beefed up protections against eviction for violations of lease, requiring landlords to prove that lease violations caused them “substantial” harm. Two clauses are also added, one allowing affordable housing providers to pursue the damages related breach of lease for lack of income recertification, and another requiring landlords to describe and prove each violation, the clause in the lease it violated and the date it occurred in communications about it to the tenant.

The original placement of the amendment in the moratorium legislation provoked the wrath of landlord lobby organization, East Bay Rental Housing Association [EBRHA]–causing a backlash that created a loss of Council support for a more rigorous end-legislation. In an interview with this publication in April however, Jenkins implied that he would do his best to return the legislation–this appears to be the fulfillment of that promise ahead of the end of Oakland's eviction moratorium next month. Ramachandran, however, is not visibly associated with the amendment.

It remains to be seen whether EBRHA will have a redux of its campaigns of the past several months. EBRHA used paid organizers and promoted “grassroots” organizations at several area meetings from ALCO's Board of Supervisors, to San Leandro's City Council, manipulating issues of equity to characterize landlords as a besieged BIPOC group, despite data that shows 2/3 of Black Oakland residents are tenants. As of now, an EBRHA backlash seems unlikely. The organization doesn't have the meeting or item on its calendar, nor as a topic on its social media accounts.

HHAP And Measure Q Homelessness Funding FY 2023-2024

The City Council will vote on accepting $26MM worth of state homelessness funding in the fourth round of State Homeless, Housing Assistance and Prevention grants and disbursing those and other funds for homeless services for FY 2023-24.

Over a dozen organizations will receive the grants to conduct services for the homeless ranging from providing mobile hygiene services to running the city’s transitional housing/navigation centers–those contracts will be worth up to $18MM. The same resolution will allocate $4.5MM in Measure Q funds.

The organizations receiving the largest share of HHAP funds for ongoing contracts to run navigation centers and shelters are:

• Operation Dignity
• Roots Community Health
• Family Bridges
• Housing Consortium of the East Bay [HCEB]
• Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency
• St. Vincent de Paul
• Urban Alchemy [for the 66th Avenue RV site, TBD]

Operation Dignity and HCEB are contracted to run more than one site in the contracts.

Several organizations are receiving “waivers” for competitive bidding requirements, including Urban Alchemy, which began its first City contract in Oakland for the 66th Avenue RV site at the start of the year. The City usually argues that there are few organizations capable of doing the very specific work of providing homeless interventions when it has waived competitive bidding in the past. The Urban Alchemy agreement is being increased by $2.1 MM of HHAP funds for their contract on 66th Ave which began last year. They'll also receive a $500K contract for hygiene services at the site, which is also a no-bid contract. Usually the City contracts with a separate service provider for hygeine, toilet and wash stations at the RV and cabin encampments.

At ALCO BOS:

Supervisor Keith Carson will introduce legislation for an Alameda County Advisory Election Commission on Tuesday, with apparently limited powers to oversee and advise. It would be a public body with monthly meetings.