Ever hear that slogan, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”? It was supposedly said by the radical leftwing activist, Saul Alinsky, giving advice to anti-government revolutionaries during the Vietnam era. Well, the City of Oakland is facing a crisis now, a budget crisis, and the crypto-Communists on the City Council have decided to use the crisis to do what they haven’t been able to do in the last few years: defund the police.
The City projects a $177 million shortfall for fiscal year 2024-2025, and the May 7 City Council meeting focused on what to do about it. I watched the whole thing, and it was clear the City Council is considering two approaches, and two only: (1) increasing revenues, mainly by higher taxes, and (2) slashing OPD’s budget.
Concerning raising taxes, these elected bureaucrats, with the help of permanent staff such as the Director of Finance and the Budget Director, have made finding money their expertise. Rebecca Kaplan spoke for them. Increase parcel taxes! she intoned. Increase the number of parcels so we can tax those too! Increase fees! Charge homeowners for sidewalk repairs so the city doesn’t have to pay for them. Like bank robber Willie Sutton, the City Council knows where the money is: with us, the people. They realize, of course, that we, the people, won’t be happy with paying more money during this time of hyper-inflation when so many Oaklanders are struggling. “We have unhappy choices, but we’ll have to make them,” moaned Dan Kalb, looking old and feeble. “It’s gonna get hot. It’s gonna be uncomfortable,” warned City Administrator Jestin Johnson. “We want to be as aggressive as possible on the revenue side,” vowed Nikki Bas, sounding like a Valkyrie.
So take heed, people of Oakland. The City Council is coming after your money, or what remains of it. You’d think that instead of raising every tax and fee they can think of, the City Council might instead consider making some cuts to their profligate spending. But this hasn’t occurred to them, except in one area. Yup, you guessed it. Budget director Bradley Johnson: “In every area of OPD there is overspending.” Treva Reid: “We need a detailed report on that.” Nikki Bas: “We need a report on how to get this overspending under control.”
Bring on the reports! And that’s where Saul Alinsky’s admonition comes in. Carroll Fife didn’t have much to say at the meeting, but you could almost see the defunder-in-chief rubbing her hands and cackling. At last! We can slash OPD’s budget and get away with it! And we can say we’re doing it to protect vital services!
I beg to differ. The City Council should do what families, yours and mine, do when there’s a cash shortage: cut back on spending. How about all those stupid, wasteful, grifty anti-violence programs that do nothing except keep FOCCs (friends of the City Council) on the public dole? The Department of Violence Prevention, for starters. That’s a $32 million nothingburger that’s seeking even more money for such “vital services” as hiring more “violence interrupters” and “life coaches,” and providing more “restorative centers” for “culturally-responsive, trauma-informed and relationship-based” services.
City of Oakland Job Openings
Wanted: Violence interrupters. Qualifications: None. Successful applicants must be culturally-responsive. White people need not apply.
And while we’re at it, we could also end the Department of Race & Equity, which soaks up millions of dollars, and for what? To placate the racially-obsessed Fife-Bas radicals. Nearly 90% of its budget goes to “personnel and overhead,” which means exactly what you think: DRE is payola for politically-connected grifters who suck up to Fife-Bas-Kaplan and get rewarded with a cushy sinecure for being toadies.
I could go on and on. The next step in this unfolding nightmare comes on May 17, when Thao herself will present her final budget to the City Council. We already got a taste of her thinking when she presented a “proposed budget” a few weeks ago. According to the city’s website, Thao’s proposed budget
“Freezes 93.0 FTE vacant Sworn positions, which will reduce the department’s Sworn authorized staffing to 710.0 FTE positions…16 fewer than the 726 Sworn police positions funded in the FY 2022-23.” That “may result in significant increases in [911] response times to Oakland residents.”
“Freezes 19.0 FTE vacant professional [i.e. non-sworn] staff positions [which] will lower the department’s capacity to support these (Black residents and other residents of color) and their families.”
“Reduces OPD’s Sworn overtime budget by 15% across the entire department.”
“Reduces the number of police academies in FY 2023-25 to three (3) in FY 2023-24 and three (3) in in FY 2024-25,” which “may result in OPD falling below the number of officers needed to address the public safety needs in Oakland.”
Let that sink in.
And those numbers could get even worse with the next iteration of Thao’s budget, not to mention what the City Council, under the control of police defunders, will do to it. So there you have it. Alinsky would be proud that the wokes aren’t wasting this crisis. Fife is purring and dreaming of out-Thao’ing Thao’s police cuts. Kalb, bored and ambitious for promotion to the State Senate, will go along to get along. Bas hopes to leave the steaming mess she made in Oakland behind as she twerks for Board of Supervisors. Thus hath Satan wrought. The nightmare continues, and we can’t wake up.
Steve Heimoff