This morning, I was going to ask you once again to call in to tomorrow’s City Council meeting to protest defunding the Oakland Police Department’s Public Information Office (PIO). But something totally unexpected has happened. The Council removed the Kaplan-Fife item from the agenda!
For more than a month, the proposal had been set for debate tomorrow. Just to remind you, Kaplan-Fife wanted to take $493,000 from OPD’s PIO department, thereby making it that much more difficult, if not impossible, for OPD to communicate with the public, leaving all the information in the hands of Kaplan-Fife—and we know where they’re coming from.
I had emailed our subscribers on Saturday morning to please take the time to call into the Council’s Feb. 1 meeting to protest muzzling OPD; and I was going to do so again today. But sometime between Saturday morning and Sunday morning—on a weekend, mind you—the item mysteriously disappeared from the Council’s agenda. Here’s what the agenda now says:
“The Item Regarding The ‘Budget Amendments - Reallocate OPD PIO And Add Police Patrols’ Was Removed From This Agenda Via Rule 28.”
Rule 28 is an arcane provision whereby items that had previously been placed on the Council’s agenda can be removed. At this point, I have no idea why the item was removed…but I have a theory.
We, the Coalition, have been very noisy on this issue. Partly this is because of my own background as a journalist. I know how important it is for OPD to have a functioning, credible communications department. I also know how desperately Kaplan-Fife don’t want OPD to be able to speak with the public. The Coalition was ready to flood tomorrow’s Council meeting with calls protesting Kaplan-Fife, and I believe they knew it. That’s why they withdrew their proposal. They couldn’t take the heat.
I concede I don’t know this for sure. At the moment, it’s just my conjecture. I have inquiries out there to find out the truth; and whatever I discover I will, of course, share with you. But for the time being, it appears to me that the mere threat of activism by the Coalition was enough to scare the bejesus out of Kaplan-Fife and the other Council members who were prepared to support them. Of course, this victory—if that’s what it is—doesn’t mean Kaplan-Fife aren’t still threats to OPD’s viability. They’ve shown their animosity toward law enforcement too many times for us to be fooled. We’ll be watching them closely, for as long as it takes, and we’ll continue to use the threat of mass call-ins to Council meetings to keep them on edge.
P.S. Wanted to let people know about an upcoming Zoom event with Sarah Karlinsky, author of a new SPUR Report on “Making Oakland Government Work.” The report emphasizes the role that having a “strong mayor” can play in Oakland. Currently, Oakland’s model features a relatively weak mayor, whose power is limited by the City Council. The meeting is on Thursday, Feb. 3, starting at 5:30 p.m. Join us for what promises to be an interesting and lively conversation!
Zoom info: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6377599629?pwd=WTlWS1RjcWpoc3VERVhWNkozZkNtUT09
Steve Heimoff