Every year, Oakland spends more than a half billion dollars of taxpayer money via the Redevelopment Committee. That committee is our town council.  The mayor has no vote and no veto. These funds are spent on “development” projects, such as Uptown and the Fox Theatre. The lion’s share of this funding pays outside cons

Next week, Alameda County will host two budget forums titled “The Worst is Yet to Come," focusing on the region’s economic outlook, as well as proposed federal and State budget cuts and their potential impacts on the community.

One day after outgoing Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums issued a report about all the great things that happened during his term, City Auditor Courtney Ruby has issued a report that says the City of Oakland improperly accounted for $14MM that appeared to be owed for loans--but wasn't actual due the city.

Ruby's audit of the Community and Economic Redevelopment Agency shows that City government basically lost track of $14 million dollars in loan receivables and deferred revenues and  failed to properly record loans that had been authorized to be converted to grants more than 10 years ago. At the same time, says Ruby, the City operated a system to record homebuyer loans that was also broken.

Note: Some OL readers have asked his piece be flagged as being written by someone involved in the KPFA/Pacifica restructuring. Just so everyone is very clear, Tracy is a board member who is involved in the situation and this is her perspective.--SM

Berkeley-After a slow motion buildup for several months, The Pacifica Foundation, the Berkeley-based 501(c)-3 not-for-profit organization that holds the licenses for five educational radio stations across the country and provides content for 150 affiliated stations, has finally moved to stanch financial bleeding at the network's Berkeley unit KPFA-FM by laying off 7-8 employees after posting a million dollar loss over the past two years.

(Editor's note: Oakland Local and Make Oakland Better Now - MOBN - have teamed up to take a close look at the accuracy of candidates’ response to an online questionnaire from MOBN. We want to know if candidates are being truthful and accurate in their responses, or are they veering from facts and offering opinion without any solutions?

Each day, Oakland Local will run a fact checking story on seven important questions.)

Tuesday’s Question: How will our next mayor set budget priorities?

Oakland’s mayoral candidates provided a wide variety of responses. Some response were detailed, some were brief. Others were ambitious or focused more on the budget problems than voicing detailed solutions.

According to Chip Johnson, Don Perata would like to be your mayor and the first thing he would like to do is eliminate the Public Ethics Commission.

AC Transit’s announcement of its decision to outsource its call center to New England brings up the same question for Oakland.  Oakland is forbidden by its charter from outsourcing anything except certain professional type services and big construction projects.

OPD's media team is busy sending out info today.  The latest--an update on some of the frequently asked questions regarding the lay-offs:

What are the numbers?

    * Previous Authorized Sworn Staffing - 803
    * Current Authorized Sworn Staffing - 723
    * Current Sworn Staffing - 694
   

Dear Oaklanders, 
 
By now, you have most likely received the official notification that following a long and very frustrating negotiation process, the City of Oakland and the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) could not reach an agreement. Therefore, the City was left with no other option than to lay off 80 police officers.
 

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE 4:55 PM: OaklandBeat just reported: "80 Oakland Police officer layoffs to happen at 5 p.m. today after union, city fails to reach contract agreement." 

"I came here to build an organization, not downsize one," said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts at a recent discussion of the pending city layoffs of 80 police officers as part of the city of Oakland's attempt to manage what still looms as an $8 million or more deficit, even after cuts.

Here's a lettter about the city budget making the rounds of the email lists. It's not bitter, or anything--and it is funny as heck--but in kind of a sad and frustrating way. Like, I still felt like screaming 10 minutes after I'd read it.

Negotiations with the Oakland Police Officers Association are continuing.  We are asking the police to pay their employee share -- 9% of 29%-- of their pension.   If the union agrees to pay 9%, we can avoid 80 layoffs on July 12th and work together on fall ballot measures to avoid future layoffs.

Police contribute to their pensions in most other cities.