City Hall Scene is a weekly blog post on news, views and events coming out  of 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Things are about to heat up at City Hall, courtesy of Oakland's general fund budget issues.

On Sunday, February 20, the budget will be "Topic A" at a Make Oakland Better Now - MOBN/East Bay Young Democrats gathering that will feature City Auditor Courtney Ruby, City Attorney John Russo and City Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente. The event will start at 2 p.m.

At the heart of that discussion, which will be held at the Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, is pension debt. Specifically, the old police and fire pension retirement system, or PFRS, that will cost the city $45.6 million at the beginning of the new fiscal year in July. In 1997, the city put in place a bond deal that led to a "contribution holiday" until 2011. Now, that money is coming due.

For the last few months, the struggle with the city's budget has mostly been behind the scenes; many folks also took a wait-and-see approach with the new mayor being voted in this fall. But now we're beginning to see the budget tug-and-pull become public.

Besides the MOBN meeting, on Feb. 22, the City Council's Finance and Management Committee will meet and discuss payment options for the PFRS.

The city staff will likely recommend a solution that involves issuing more bonds, with balloon payments in the hundreds of millions of dollars coming due starting less than 15 years from now, according to MOBN.

In March, most likely at the end of it, Mayor Jean Quan will deliver her budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Quan has promised to unveil her budget early so that there is plenty of time for community input. This will be critical because Oakland has a $42 million budget shortfall that it has to plug, and some city services could be vulnerable to cuts.

In the middle of all of this is the unresolved issue of the Oakland police pension payments. At one point, police officers agreed to concessions that would lead to paying into their pensions for the first time. However, that deal was connected to a $360 parcel tax measure that voters rejected in June.

It's gong to be a busy budget season, that's for sure.

About Jennifer Inez Ward

A writer and photographer, Jennifer Inez Ward has been documenting Oakland neighborhoods for more than 10 years. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, she focuses on the uniqueness and beauty of everyday life in a city that is too often overlooked for its treasures and pleasures. Throughout the years, Jennifer has had the honor of showcasing her work at a number of venues, including a permanent loan of images that are displayed on the front wall of Barnes and Nobel in Jack London Square. Jennifer is a featured artist documented in “Images of America: Black Artists in Oakland."