INTERIM OAKLAND MAYOR KEVIN JENKINS delivered a nearly $4.4 billion, two-year budget proposal to the City Council Monday, emphasizing the need to protect police and fire services while simultaneously tackling a massive budget deficit.
Along with the draft budget documents, Jenkins delivered a letter to the Council laying out in broad strokes his vision for the city’s financial life, including how he’ll eliminate an estimated $268 million deficit over the next two fiscal years.
“It’s a pathway to physical stability,” Jenkins said of his proposal. “We want to ensure that public safety is a priority, that we are doing a really good job at our core statutory services.”
Jenkins said he realizes that Oaklanders want to feel safer in their city and are alarmed at the prospect of cuts to police, fire and the Department of Violence Prevention.
He said that the city saw a 30 percent reduction in its homicide rate over the past year and his budget will help build on that momentum by, in part, funding six police academies and providing enough money for 678 officers, with a goal of getting to 700 officers in the future.
Jenkins’ budget also includes two fire academies and, thanks to the recent voter-approved Measure A, funding for four fire stations that might otherwise be on the chopping block.
Still, the public safety budgets — which account for 75 percent of the city’s general fund spending — weren’t spared from cuts.
Two fire stations will be “browned out,” or temporarily closed, on a rotating basis and the Oakland Police Department’s overtime budget has been reduced from a recent high of about $50 million per year to roughly $34 million next fiscal year and $38 million the year after that.
“As the fire department, we understand we’re a spoke in the wheel. We’re part of the public safety team,” said Fire Chief Damon Covington. “Everybody’s had to take some level of cut. I know that the interim mayor and the incoming mayor have prioritized public safety, so from the fire departments perspective, we’re trying to figure out different ways that we can be less impactful on the budget.”
Incoming mayor Barbara Lee has been in near-daily contact with Jenkins and his budget team in order to help guide spending priorities since she won a special April 15 election to replace Sheng Thao, who voters ousted in a recall election last November.
Sometime in mid- to late-May, Lee will take over for Jenkins who, as City Council president, has been filling in since Thao left office in December.
Lee didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
In addition to public safety budget cuts, Jenkins’ budget eliminates more than 400 mostly vacant city jobs and anticipates fewer than a dozen actual layoffs.
“It’s a pathway to physical stability. … We want to ensure that public safety is a priority.”
Interim Oakland Mayor Kevin Jenkins
It also anticipates adding additional revenue streams to the city budget, including a proposed $40 million-a-year parcel tax for the June 2026 ballot.
It also envisions bond sales of $180 million for affordable housing investments and $15 million each year for the next two years for street paving.
While the budget Jenkins delivered is balanced, his letter to the City Council warns that employee pension and medical benefit expenses are expected to rise faster than the city’s project revenue growth for the foreseeable future, which means that city leaders will likely be making difficult budget decisions for years to come.
In addition to police and fire budgets, Jenkins said he prioritized spending on combating illegal dumping, cleaning up homeless encampments and removing abandoned vehicles from city streets, among other things.
While he didn’t give specific numbers, he also said that funding levels for Oakland Parks and Recreation Department’s summer and after school programs remain intact, as does spending on public libraries.
Jenkins’ budget proposal now is in the hands of the City Council, which has until June 30 to make whatever changes it has in mind and pass a final budget.
Councilman Noel Gallo, who is serving as interim City Council president, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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