Nikki Fortunato Bas, or, as I call her, Nikki Defundo Bas, “avoids mentioning public safety at all costs,” says East Bay Insiders. That’s because Bas, who’s running for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, has been the Oakland City Council’s most vindictive attack dog on the police department, and these days, hating on cops isn’t a good look for an ambitious politician. Thus, she remains conspicuously silent when asked anything about crime.
To appreciate how much Bas tried to hurt OPD, go back to June 24, 2021, and this San Francisco Chronicle headline:
Oakland City Council Votes to Defund Police, Stripping More Than $17M from Department Budget
and this sub-head: “Council members Nikki Fortunato Bas and Carroll Fife spearheaded the push to defund the Oakland Police Department with the amended budget vote”
The “amended budget” had been introduced by Bas, as City Council president, and her colleague, Fife, three days earlier (June 21), when they proposed significant cuts to OPD’s budget for 2021-2023. After receiving “important comments and information” from “members of the public…” (which information they never revealed), ”We have made changes in our budget documents,” they announced.
These “changes” included the most radical assault on OPD’s budget in recent history. The cuts were so bad that even Mayor Libby Schaaf, no flaming liberal, said they would “destroy” the police department.
Here are some of the things Bas/Fife proposed to do to OPD:
• “reduce 2 police academies in Year 1”
• “Don’t add 2nd traffic squad”
• “Freeze citywide 911 surge unit”
• They called for an “Independent Audit of Police Department” which would be overseen “by the Police Commission,” a commission notoriously hostile to OPD.
• They also called “for the additional transfer of certain categories of non-violent, non-criminal calls for service from the Police Department to alternative first responders, including the Fire Department, Department of Transportation, Violence Prevention, Public Works, etc., for effectuation by July 2022.”
“RESTRUCTURING” OPD, SHIFTING OF RESOURCES
• They “direct[ed] City Administration to work with the Council President [Bas] and Public Safety Chair to hire a consultant with expertise on the criminal legal system, to facilitate the second phase of Reimagining Public Safety in Oakland...”.
Anytime you hear Bas and her friends talk about “reimagining” something, bolt the door. They’re up to no good.
“A DECREASE IN SWORN OFFICERS”
• They called for an “increase in civilian personnel assigned to investigations and other specialized units (including possible new classifications) and concomitant decrease in assigned sworn officers in the following units/positions for greater effectiveness and cost savings.” The units to have that “decrease in sworn officers” included:
• Evidence
• Sex Registrants
• Patrol Desk in the Police Administration Building
• Patrol Desk at the Eastmont Substation
• Internal Affairs Division
• Transportation Lot
• 911 Call Center
• Traffic Enforcement
• They advocated an “Advisory board” to oversee OPD whose “members shall include, but not be limited to, experts in the provision of emergency and/or crisis and/or mental health services, who have experience working with Oakland’s most impacted communities, including individuals who have been involved with the criminal legal system, unsheltered individuals, domestic violence survivors, youth, and survivors of state violence. Advisory board members shall be representative of the communities being served.”
Bas justified radically revising OPD’s budget downward by citing the mission of the Oakland Department of Race & Equity to “consider equity and social justice impacts in all decision-making so that decisions increase fairness and opportunity for all people.” The DRE ordinance specifically names “budgets” as one of the areas in which “the City Administrator shall apply equity and social justice foundational practices…”.
In this way, you can see how Bas’s obsession with “race and equity” resulted in her war on police. Her constituency is, not those of us who are lawful and play by the rules, but criminals. She saw “budgets” not as money to pay cops, but as money to take away from cops and inject into her and Fife’s pet schemes.
It was this Bas-Fife budget that Mayor Schaaf predicted would “destroy” the Oakland Police Department. In the end, the City Council unanimously approved the Bas-Fife budget amendments.
No wonder Bas “avoids mentioning public safety at all costs.” Crime is her kryptonite. She dares not touch the issue of crime with a ten-foot pole because she knows her history would paint her as the consummate hypocrite. In fact, her campaign website doesn’t even mention crime or public safety! It’s as if the Number 1 public policy issue in Oakland doesn’t exist.
How shameful. How dishonest and cynical. How dangerous. And this career pol now hopes to be promoted.
I urge the media and members of the public to relentlessly question Bas on her silence concerning public safety. Ask her if she still supports defunding the Oakland Police Department. When she tries to deny that she did—as she will—remind her about that June 21, 2021 vote. Put her on the spot; when she becomes defensive, she’s even less credible than usual. We do not want or need a cop hater and liar on our Board of Supervisors, where she will be able to inflict the kind of damage on the entire county that she did on Oakland.
Steve Heimoff