Upcoming Public Safety Events

By Mike Ferro
MOBN! Public Safety Committee Co-Chair

There are important meetings in Oakland this coming week and the week following on public safety. Attending these meetings will be very helpful for you in understanding what is going on and what we might expect in the future. And your attendance will be very useful for helping us develop MOBN!'s perspective on public safety policy.

First, if you haven't yet attended an Oakland Police Department Strategic Framework public meeting, there are two this week:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Willie Key Recreation Center

3131 Union St., Oakland

6:30 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, March 11

Manzanita Recreation Center

2701 22nd Ave., Oakland

6:30 - 8:00 pm

The Strategic Framework documents are also available on the OPD website. The framework is a good, very promising, piece of work, which says all the right things. I attended the first of these meetings which was held the same day that the framework was announced and thus was poorly attended. However, in attendance were some citizens who had been involved with finding and hiring Tony Batts as police Chief. I learned a great deal from what they said.

Police “Rebirth” in Oakland

Make Oakland Better Now! Tells Council, "Fix the Budget Now!"

After MOBN! had its budget meeting, took votes there and then surveyed its membership electonically, the results were clear:

• Hands off the police department;
• The city can’t fix this its fiscal problemswith program reductions;
• City salaries and benefits are out of control;
• Fixing these problem will take broad-based, across the board personnel cost reductions in every department.

That is the message MOBN! delivered to the City Council in a letter on January 27.  The City Council will be addressing the budget crisis at a special meeting on February 16 at 5:00 p.m.  In connection with that meeting, MOBN! told the council: 

Furthermore,

And,

Click the link below to read the entire letter.  MOBN! will present its positions at the 5:00 p.m., February 16 meeting, and urges all of its members to attend.

Budget Director Cheryl Taylor Addresses Make Oakland Better Now! Emergency Meeting

As Group Considers Budget Proposals

Cast Your Vote Now On What The City Should Do

Make Oakland Better Now! held its emergency budget meeting last Monday night at City Hall.  If attendance was a little lighter than we’d hoped,  it soon became clear why:  the discussion of how the city can solve its short-term budget crisis is incredibly depressing.  As one member put it, the discussion was "like figuring out which of your pets to shoot."

Nonetheless, with a guest appearance by City Budget Director Cheryl Taylor -- who knows this subject better than anyone -- we had a great opportunity to learn more about the very difficult decisions facing the city council.  The short version:  the city can only balance its budget for this fiscal year by cutting almost $9 million in expenses between now and June 30.  It has less than $23 million from which to make those cuts.  It's looking at eliminating programs, huge across-the-board reductions, or both.  Council will be meeting in special session on February 2 at (tentatively) 5:00 p.m. to address all of this.  And the situation only gets worse next year.

Later note:  The budget meeting has moved to February 16, time TBA.

See excerpts from the meeting:

January 11 Agenda Now Available

Click on the link for details.

            On December 15, MOBN! Board members Bruce Nye, Jim Blachman and   Mike Ferro met with new Oakland Chief of Police Tony Batts at the Chief’s office at OPD headquarters. Topics of our conversation included MOBN! Public Safety Committee leadership’s five working goals,  Oakland’s homicide problem, the challenges of police resources, qualitative and quantitative, the challenges to Oakland’s communities regarding crime, especially violent crime community policing, the chief’s views on staffing needs and what MOBN! can do to help to improve Oakland’s public safety.

November Report Published

The November 2009 report of the MOBN steering committees and new Executive Board is now available.

Citizen Reactions to Chief Batts

Oaklander Sandra Pohutsky reports from Chief Batts' appearance at Montera School on Thursday, November 12.  Read about it here.  And Oaklander Mike Ferro reports from the OPOA meeting on Monday, November 9.  Read about it here.

Re-Election for Mayor Dellums?

Read Make Oakland Better Now!'s account of the recent meeting at Prescott Elementary School to introduce Chief Anthony Batts.  Will the mayor run again?

October Report to Oaklanders

 Read the steering committee's report to the members on developments since the kickoff meeting and future plans.

Upcoming Public Safety Events

By Mike Ferro
MOBN! Public Safety Committee Co-Chair

There are important meetings in Oakland this coming week and the week following on public safety. Attending these meetings will be very helpful for you in understanding what is going on and what we might expect in the future. And your attendance will be very useful for helping us develop MOBN!'s perspective on public safety policy.

First, if you haven't yet attended an Oakland Police Department Strategic Framework public meeting, there are two this week:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Willie Key Recreation Center

3131 Union St., Oakland

6:30 - 8:00 pm

Thursday, March 11

Manzanita Recreation Center

2701 22nd Ave., Oakland

6:30 - 8:00 pm

The Strategic Framework documents are also available on the OPD website. The framework is a good, very promising, piece of work, which says all the right things. I attended the first of these meetings which was held the same day that the framework was announced and thus was poorly attended. However, in attendance were some citizens who had been involved with finding and hiring Tony Batts as police Chief. I learned a great deal from what they said.

Police “Rebirth” in Oakland

Make Oakland Better Now! Tells Council, "Fix the Budget Now!"

After MOBN! had its budget meeting, took votes there and then surveyed its membership electonically, the results were clear:

• Hands off the police department;
• The city can’t fix this its fiscal problemswith program reductions;
• City salaries and benefits are out of control;
• Fixing these problem will take broad-based, across the board personnel cost reductions in every department.

That is the message MOBN! delivered to the City Council in a letter on January 27.  The City Council will be addressing the budget crisis at a special meeting on February 16 at 5:00 p.m.  In connection with that meeting, MOBN! told the council: 

Furthermore,

And,

Click the link below to read the entire letter.  MOBN! will present its positions at the 5:00 p.m., February 16 meeting, and urges all of its members to attend.

Budget Director Cheryl Taylor Addresses Make Oakland Better Now! Emergency Meeting

As Group Considers Budget Proposals

Cast Your Vote Now On What The City Should Do

Make Oakland Better Now! held its emergency budget meeting last Monday night at City Hall.  If attendance was a little lighter than we’d hoped,  it soon became clear why:  the discussion of how the city can solve its short-term budget crisis is incredibly depressing.  As one member put it, the discussion was "like figuring out which of your pets to shoot."

Nonetheless, with a guest appearance by City Budget Director Cheryl Taylor -- who knows this subject better than anyone -- we had a great opportunity to learn more about the very difficult decisions facing the city council.  The short version:  the city can only balance its budget for this fiscal year by cutting almost $9 million in expenses between now and June 30.  It has less than $23 million from which to make those cuts.  It's looking at eliminating programs, huge across-the-board reductions, or both.  Council will be meeting in special session on February 2 at (tentatively) 5:00 p.m. to address all of this.  And the situation only gets worse next year.

Later note:  The budget meeting has moved to February 16, time TBA.

See excerpts from the meeting:

January 11 Agenda Now Available

Click on the link for details.

            On December 15, MOBN! Board members Bruce Nye, Jim Blachman and   Mike Ferro met with new Oakland Chief of Police Tony Batts at the Chief’s office at OPD headquarters. Topics of our conversation included MOBN! Public Safety Committee leadership’s five working goals,  Oakland’s homicide problem, the challenges of police resources, qualitative and quantitative, the challenges to Oakland’s communities regarding crime, especially violent crime community policing, the chief’s views on staffing needs and what MOBN! can do to help to improve Oakland’s public safety.

November Report Published

The November 2009 report of the MOBN steering committees and new Executive Board is now available.

Citizen Reactions to Chief Batts

Oaklander Sandra Pohutsky reports from Chief Batts' appearance at Montera School on Thursday, November 12.  Read about it here.  And Oaklander Mike Ferro reports from the OPOA meeting on Monday, November 9.  Read about it here.

Re-Election for Mayor Dellums?

Read Make Oakland Better Now!'s account of the recent meeting at Prescott Elementary School to introduce Chief Anthony Batts.  Will the mayor run again?

October Report to Oaklanders

 Read the steering committee's report to the members on developments since the kickoff meeting and future plans.