Carroll Fife rarely if ever speaks at Council meetings, even if she’s present, which she frequently isn’t. She know she controls the agenda even if she just sits there dumbly. The chatterboxes are Kalb, Gallo, Kaplan and, increasingly, Reid. Bas talks a lot, too, due to her presidency, but it’s usually to make some bureaucratic point of order. I think I know why Fife speaks so seldom. She did manage to get in a few words in favor of—what else?—reparations.
Yesterday’s meeting was to finally vote on Oakland’s budget—four days late.
Bas spoke via Zoom—she has COVID. She made a couple points:
She bashed Prop 13 for Oakland’s massive budget deficit. Not the out-of-control spending by a maniacally irresponsible City Council, but something that happened 46 years ago, which prohibited rogue city councils from raising property taxes to indefensible levels to fund their crazy schemes. You almost have to feel sorry for the Oakland City Council. They’d love to jack up property taxes and further extort homeowners, but the law says they can’t. That’s why they’re trying to repeal Prop 13.
Then Bas said something we can all agree with: “We have to protect public safety.” Yes! Tell it, Sister! But then she stepped on her own applause line. “For our most vulnerable residents.”
You hear about “our most vulnerable residents” a lot from this City Council, but what does it mean? Actually the phrase, properly understood, means “poor people of color.” Why not come out and say it? The reason is because “our most vulnerable” tests well in focus groups. Who wouldn’t want to protect “vulnerable” people? It makes them sound like orphaned puppy dogs. But if these politicians said “poor people of color,” embarrassing questions would arise. Are people of color more deserving of safety than White people? Are they less accountable to the law? Yes, crime is higher in areas of the city inhabited by POC, but that’s because POC commit more crime than White people. Progressives can’t bring themselves to utter this truth. The rest of us see reality.
Then Bas went on to the deficit. Amazingly, she took credit for raising business taxes—a move that helped (and is helping) to drive businesses out of Oakland, as well as boosting inflation. She said she looks forward to new, impending sales taxes proposed by Councilmember Kevin Jenkins (District 6). I was unable, after a search, to discover any specific proposal by Jenkins to raise sales taxes; I wonder if Bas inadvertently and prematurely let the cat out of the bag. But let’s assume Bas knows what she’s talking about. It would be in keeping with the City Council’s tactics: raise taxes, then raise them again, and when the public cries out in pain, raise them again! That’s what being “progressive” means.
She put up two charts side-by-side. Both were versions of public safety cuts. Option 1, which she said she supported, reduces the number of sworn officers to 678 (down from the current number of 712) and funds three new police academies in the 2024-2025 budget. Option 2 reduces the number of sworn officers to 610, and the number of academies to one. Bas’s tactic was obvious and corny: Option 2 is so horrible, so nightmarish, it would render Oakland virtually uninhabitable. Therefore, Bas, in supporting Option 1, seemed to be saying, “See, my fellow citizens, I’m prioritizing your security needs.”
Clever, no? But let there be no mistake: Bas’s political history has consisted of her trying to defund the Oakland Police Department. It’s how she got elected, with the help of the anti-cop SEIU. She’s determined to do it one way or another—even if she has to use a budget deficit to justify it while transferring funding to her dubious “social justice” schemes.
By late afternoon, the Council voted 5-3 in favor of Option 1. As bad as the OPD cuts are, they’ll be even worse—at Option 2 levels—if the City can’t sell the Oakland Coliseum for $63 million—a deal City Administrator Jestin Johnson strongly and repeatedly warned is “risky,” thereby putting everyone on notice that he told them so. If the Coliseum deal falls through, Boom. Oakland’s budget collapses like that bridge in Baltimore. Apres moi, le deluge. After the vote, Thao said on the evening news she was pleased with the result, although in response to a question about the FBI raid, she refused to comment. In the background, Fife purred. A weaker OPD is exactly what she wants.
Steve Heimoff