Oakland Politics Week in Review, 5/1/2023

Oakland Politics Week in Review, 5/1/2023: City Unions Support Thao Budget, But OPD Assumptions May Prove Hard to Defend; Sideshow Ordinance Returns to Public Safety, Untouched Since December Despite False Media Claims

In Break from Schaaf Years, City’s Unions Largely Supportive of Thao Budget, But Scrutiny May Reveal Faulty Assumptions on Police Spending: updated

After years of heated rhetoric at Council budget meetings under the Schaaf mayoral administration, Oakland’s City unions appear largely supportive of Mayor Thao’s proposed biennial budget. The budget was released on Monday and presented to the public at a Special Council meeting on Wednesday. Thao’s proposed budget has been met with praise by union members, rather than alarm and derision, the typical union response to Schaaf-era budgets.

About a dozen speakers–the majority at the sparsely attended Wednesday afternoon budget meeting–were rank and file members of the City’s unions, as well as union organizers. Many who’d logged decades at the City described a dire situation for City workers and placed the blame on previous mayoral administrations. Felipe Cuevas, president of the City’s chapter of SEIU 1021, blamed Schaaf for the budget shortfall, calling it “the last administration’s parting gift.” Most of the workers present were International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21 [IFPTE] supervisors who complained of being unable to retain staff.

“I’ve watched too many great colleagues come to work for the City of Oakland and then leave for better opportunities. It feels like there’s a revolving door in my department,” said Jamaica Moon, a Public Works supervisor and 10-year City veteran.

Ivan Satterfield, also of Public Works, complained about staffing shortages and high work burdens.

“... the streets are riddled with potholes, illegal dumping, homeless encampments. And frontline staff like myself are asked to address these issues, and not only address them, but to solve the problem. We’re overworked and burnt out. There’ve been times when I’ve had 25 staff under me … I should have one third of that in order to provide real adequate services to the City,” Satterfield said.

Most speakers, like Moon and Satterfield, praised Thao for focusing on analyzing salaries and rebuilding the City’s workforce with alternate funding sources, while avoiding layoffs by relying on vacancy freezes to balance the budget.

Pro-Union Council/Mayor, After Years of Bad Blood with Schaaf

The City's unions had bad blood with Schaaf throughout her administration. Many in the City’s unions have criticized Schaaf for historic vacancies and lack of salary competitiveness and over-reliance on temporary workers after the unions agreed to furloughs and layoffs following the “Great Recession” of the late ‘00s. The responsibility for replenishing the City’s workforce once the crisis was over was seen to fall largely on Schaaf’s two terms, but despite years of increasing real estate-related revenue, Schaaf is seen to have done little over the years for the City’s workforce. In 2017, the City’s major unions, Service Employees International Union [SEIU] 1021 and IFPTE 21* picketed Schaaf's State of the City address, then led a week-long strike to protest her anti-labor policies and practices.

But things are different this time around. Schaaf is gone, of course, and so are some of her ideological and administration allies on Council. In previous years, those allies could be counted on to protect her budget and contract choices, but the composition of the Council has continued its left-leaning curve in recent years. The latest contract negotiations in 2022 coincided with an uphill mayoral election year for Schaaf surrogates tied to her labor legacy. That paved the way for the easy passage of a three-year contract with strong pay increases and benefits that will last through the biennial. Thao received robust and unprecedented financial help from union allies both in the City and local Building Trades and ran on a platform of strengthening the City's workforce. Thao's budget appears to be making good on that promise.

Citywide Survey and "Vacancy Taskforce" Elements of Thao Package Popular with Unions

Thao’s promise to focus on recruitment and retention by establishing a “vacancy taskforce” and citywide survey on competitive wages, are some of the centerpieces of her budget. IFPTE 21, SEIU 1021, and International Association of Fire Fighters Local 55 jointly issued a press release this week praising these and other features–a novelty after standing regularly in opposition to key elements of the former mayor’s budget proposals.

Police Union Absent from Chorus

Notably, one "union" missing from the chorus of praise is the Oakland Police Officers Association [OPOA], the OPD’s bargaining unit, despite Schaaf opening the OPOA contract up early to lengthen its term and lavish Oakland officers with longevity and other types of bonuses last year. Schaaf was previously seen as combative with every city union but the OPOA: while Schaaf held other union demands at arm’s length, including IAFF/OPOA, she offered the OPD a five-year contract with regular high raises and bonuses in 2018; Schaaf's actions in 2022 made that a 7 year contract. Opening the contract early [and in secret] allowed the OPOA to avoid the scrutiny called for by Reimagining Public Safety Taskforce recommendations. That said, the OPOA holds itself apart from the City’s labor unions, does not participate in or endorse their strikes, and usually does not have representatives speak at Council meetings, preferring to air grievances to friendly media.

Thao’s Budget Highlights

At Wednesday's meeting, Thao walked the public and Council through a PowerPoint presentation of budget proposal highlights:

Reorganization of City Departments, Reorganizing Service Through Thematic Channels: Thao promised to make the provision of services more efficient by creating “channels” of City activity, focused on:

–Community Safety

–Infrastructure and Economic Growth

–Community Services

–Internal Services

Thao also intends to fold certain services into new departments–splitting Human Services departments into two separate agencies, for example. All of this is sure to be a focus of debate at Council, whose members may not all agree to all of these changes:

—Department of Homelessness and Housing Services: Thao’s budget would take homelessness services currently managed by the Human Services Department and add them to the Housing and Community Development (HCD) frame, but apparently would not include other homelessness services, encampment management and interaction, which would remain in the City Administrator's Office. The Human Services Department and HCD would no longer exist under those names if this change makes it through Council.

—Thao’s Department of Children, Youth and Families would join certain homelessness services now under the Human Services Department into the Parks, Recreation and Youth Development, along with other services currently under Human Services, like Head Start.

—The new Planning, Building and Economic Development Department would fold all the current functions of the Economic and Workforce Development Department into Planning. That would include the city’s real estate processes, management of City-owned buildings like the Fox Theater, business improvement districts and many other functions.

Stabilizing Workforce by Freezing Vacant Positions, Allowing Attrition in General Purpose Fund (GPF): Thao’s plan would freeze most vacant positions funded by general fund dollars, and would keep GPF-funded positions vacant if current employees leave.

“Hiring Blitz” in non-GPF Funded Positions and Services Growth with Non-GPF Funds, Including Grants and Voter-Approved Bond Proceeds: Regardless of the hiring freeze from the GPF, Thao also promises a “hiring blitz” for positions that are funded by special and other funds, including in homelessness services, infrastructure and transportation and public works and housing. Measure U funding could cover positions to facilitate the allocation of the funding, for example; homelessness services could be funded by state and federal aid for homeless people.

More Realistic OPD Budgeting/Academy Production: Thao also vows a steeper freeze of unfilled OPD positions than her predecessor, and even what Council ultimately set in the last biennial budget. Thao says that’s to reflect the current staffing reality, as the OPD recovers from massive attrition of 2021-22. With six proposed academies and current attrition levels, the Thao administration argues that attrition and officer production will match her proposed 710-officer staffing level. That would freeze 16 more sworn positions than the current authorized staffing and nearly 50 more than what Schaaf originally proposed in her biennial proposal in 2020. As of next week, when the latest academy graduates, OPD will have about 724 officers, a number likely to decline considerably over the next five or six months before a new academy graduates.

During Wednesday's meeting, Councilmember Kalb brought up an issue that is likely to resurface: historically, OPD has used unspent non-frozen vacant salaries to offset overtime costs. Departments can’t use vacancy savings if the position is frozen, because though the position remains on the rolls, it is off the books until it's unfrozen. Thao also proposes a 15% reduction in overtime to match the size of the police force, making the issue one that is bound to get more scrutiny both in the public and on the dais. Overtime is notoriously immune to controls, and OPD regularly exceed their budgeted overtime  [see below].

Transition of IAD Investigations into Police Commission’s Community Police Review Agency: Thao would rely on a now-years-old plan intended to transfer much of the complaint investigation carried out by OPD in its Internal Affairs Division [IAD] directly to the independent Police Commission's Community Police Review Agency. This would save about $5 MM in the second budget year when it would be implemented [see below].

OFD Partial Brownouts: Thao’s plan would also delay the implementation of a new fire engine and have a rolling brownout of fire engine service from station to station. Though Oakland Fire Department has been largely silent on this issue, it might come up during deliberations.

$10 MM Investment in “hardening” IT; Human Resources Expansion to Fill Vacancies: Thao's proposed actual processes and tasks to “harden” IT aren’t described, perhaps deliberately, in the wake of ransomware attack.

Long Road Ahead for Thao's Proposed Budget

There’s still a month to go before the budget is hashed out in earnest. After district budget town halls, the usual errata publications, and the introduction of Council President Bas’ budget amendments and councilmember-proposed tweaks, the budget passed by Council for the next two years may look different from the one Thao described Wednesday. Some budget assumptions may receive greater scrutiny during deliberations in June.

IAD to CPRA Process Long Moribund

Thao’s budget relies on significant savings in OPD by civilianizing 16 sworn officer investigator positions from OPD's IAD into the CPRA. But Thao may be getting ahead of herself. The plan to civilianize and transfer IAD, which was first proposed by CPRA Director John Alden in 2021, has been held up by torpor both in the Police Commission and in the City Administrator's office since the Police Commission fired Alden without explanation in early 2022. In January, when the IAD scandal emerged, Reiskin responded to questions on the record about the forgotten process, confirming that the CPRA and Commission had failed to create the Request for Proposals for the study since firing Alden.

The task of contracting for the pre-requisite feasibility study has been stuck in the Police Commission’s to-do pile for over a year and still hasn’t been agendized for vote**. That’s just to issue the contract to perform the study. If the plan is deemed unsuitable, overly ambitious or needs more work, that would mean the loss of some or all of the $5 MM OPD savings that would have to be accounted for elsewhere in the budget. It's possible that Thao has an alternate process in mind, but that would still have to go through the independent Police Commission that runs the CPRA and that her administration cannot dictate to.

6 Academies Proposed While Enrollment and Graduation Rates Decline

Likewise, the debate on academies, which loomed large during the last biennial cycle, may  become an issue again during this one. In the 2021-23 budget cycle, the Council led by President Bas said no to Schaaf’s proposed six academies, cutting two of the proposed academies and using the funds for violence prevention. Then police staffing began its downward trajectory in late 2021. OPD experienced historic attrition as officers left the department in large numbers while crime also briefly increased.

Thao brought and backed budget amendments in the ensuing months that would eventually create three additional academies in the biennial period, successfully making the argument for seven academies to councilmembers who’d just months earlier argued a total of four was enough***. Thao argued that OPD now guaranteed recruitment and training practices would increase the output of each academy, making the bigger investments worthwhile. But in the end, the move was largely dictated by political pressure rather than good math, with Council acquiescing to Thao’s proposal given a rise in violent crime and a catastrophic loss of officers.

Thao had argued that she’d waited to support additional academies until she could be assured they would produce enough police to prove worth the cost and effort. The actual performance of the academies since hasn’t stood up to the hype. In the months since the additional academies were added to the FY 21-23 budget, there’s been a downward enrollment trend, from a high of 39 trainees in the 187th academy last year to a low of 23 in the academy that will start in May.

Graduation numbers are also on a significant downward trend. The last academy, the 190th, produced 18 police officers; the 189th produced 22.  The 191st academy will graduate next week with 18 officers. The 192nd academy that will start sometime in May begins with 23 recruits, one of the lowest enrollments in recent history and well below the earlier academies in the last biennial–it's almost certain to produce a similarly low graduation number. 18 graduates per academy aren't enough to keep up with the Thao administration's projected 5 officers per month attrition rate; if the OPD can't increase their academy output or lower their attrition rate, OPD could end the biennial budget period with significantly fewer officers than it has today or even the 710 that the Thao administration predicts. With an apparently limited pool of applicants, additional academies may just spend more money to create the same declining number of officers. Even if the Thao administration’s projections for police staffing hold at 710 officers, it may cost more than necessary to produce them, an issue that may seem relevant to CMs while budgeting critically low revenue.

* City workers also belong to smaller unions that represent them in talks, including International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers [IBEW], and Confidential Management Employees Association [CMEA].

** The Police Commission began a Request for Proposals for the feasibility study/consultant in May around the time of this writing.

*** Thao actually proposed a total of 8 academies, with the 8th being a lateral academy the legislation directed Reiskin to pursue if possible. The OPD could not find enough recruits for a lateral academy, however.

Sideshow Legislation Returns to Public Safety Committee, but Media Claims About it Are Inaccurate

This Tuesday at 6pm, legislation that would focus penalties and the potential for civil suits against sideshow organizers, returns to the Public Safety Committee. The legislation, first introduced last Fall by Noel Gallo, was prepared by the Schaaf Administration and OPD but was an almost exact copy of legislation already passed in San Jose. That legislation contained clauses that criminalized even the presence within 200 feet of a sideshow event, but over time the legislation was re-written by CM Dan Kalb and the City Administrator/OPD to remove those clauses, arguing they were too broad and would violate the rights of people who happened to be in the vicinity or had only paused briefly to watch.

The legislation now deems organizing and participating in key roles at a Sideshow misdemeanor criminal act, subject to up to six months in jail and/or fine. Despite the fact that most sideshow related actions are already illegal, the City argues that the legislation contains clauses that will allow the City Attorney's office to pursue injunctions and civil suits against organizers and promoters of sideshows, stopping them at the source. It's not clear how the legislation would allow that, however.

CM Carroll Fife moved to postpone the legislation last December, arguing that the new District 6 council member, Kevin Jenkins, should be allowed the time to pursue legal alternatives to sideshows. But there is no accompanying report that suggests these efforts have moved forward.

Gallo brought the legislation back at a Rules Committee meeting last month. Several days later, a video surfaced of the beating of a man who antagonized sideshow participants. In the aftermath, tabloid television corporations like ABC7 Bay Area have spread misinformation about what the legislation includes, claiming that the legislation will criminalize attendance; despite these claims the legislation in the packet remains the same as the December version, and it does not penalize residents simply for being in the vicinity of a sideshow.

Thanks to Rachel Beck for Copy Editing!