OAKLAND — Confronted with a crushing monetary deficit totaling $265 million over the subsequent two years, Oakland’s interim mayor proposed a funds Monday that features dozens of layoffs and the freezing of tons of of different positions.
However the two-year funds spares town’s police and hearth departments from additional staffing cuts.
Councilmember Kevin Jenkins — serving as town’s appearing chief earlier than Mayor-elect Barbara Lee is sworn in later this month — laid out what he known as a “pathway to financial stability” aimed toward starting the lengthy, arduous technique of reshaping town’s checkbook from its regular sample of stinging annual deficits. He did so in a seven-page funds abstract forward of the complete funds’s formal launch, which was anticipated at a yet-to-be-announced hour Monday night.
Jenkins’ proposal consists of chopping 80 jobs which are at present staffed, although metropolis officers on Monday expressed optimism they might shuffle all however lower than a dozen of these individuals to comparable, now-vacant positions with town. As well as, greater than 325 vacancies will stay unfilled.
Metropolis officers on Monday didn’t describe which departments could be impacted by the job cuts.
Calling public security town’s “top responsibility,” Jenkins proposed funding 678 sworn law enforcement officials for each upcoming fiscal years. He additionally proposed funding six police academies over the subsequent two years, together with two firefighter academies.
Jenkins additionally needs to drop the variety of hearth station closures from three to 2, and have these two closures rotate all through town. For instance, the 2 hearth stations within the Oakland hills that had been not too long ago closed for budgetary causes will possible reopen over the summer time hearth season, whereas others going through decrease name volumes will briefly shut down, metropolis officers mentioned.
Jenkins burdened that 4 extra hearth stations would have closed had voters not not too long ago permitted Measure A, a gross sales tax improve which is predicted so as to add $20 million to town’s funds subsequent 12 months and $30 million the next 12 months.
“We are working very diligently to restore public safety in the city,” Jenkins mentioned at a press convention Monday afternoon. “You see from the election that recently happened that residents are demanding that they want to feel safe in the city that they love.”
The funds proposal now heads to the Metropolis Council, which is predicted to haggle over amendments and adjustments forward of a June 30 deadline for passage. Metropolis employees additionally should maintain public funds conferences in every council district for residents to supply their enter.
The funds — which requires $2.1 billion in spending from July 1 by way of June 30, 2026, and one other $2.2 billion the next fiscal 12 months — is essentially contingent on federal funding remaining regular, whilst President Donald Trump vows to intestine federal spending within the coming years.
It additionally assumes the passage of a yet-to-be-drafted poll measure in June 2026, which might herald one other $40 million in tax income for “ongoing public safety resources,” in accordance with the funds overview launched Monday. That tax income — if placed on the poll and handed — would pay for companies and employees at present on town’s payroll, metropolis officers mentioned.
Oakland Mayoral candidate Barbara Lee, proper, greets supporters after her speech throughout a particular Election Day watch celebration in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. The next Oakland mayor will exchange former mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled final Nov.. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
The proposal comes at a turbulent time for Oakland as town grapples with a deadly funds disaster and an ongoing management void.
Oakland leaders have warned town faces a $265 million funds shortfall over the subsequent two fiscal years, amid lagging revenues from taxes on real-estate transfers and enterprise licenses, together with rising extra time prices for town’s police and hearth departments. That deficit features a $138 million shortfall in the course of the subsequent fiscal 12 months — which runs from July 1 by way of June 30, 2026 — and a $127 million shortfall the next fiscal 12 months.
Already this 12 months, town has laid off 42 staff and demoted 34 others to rectify a deep funds shortfall in its present fiscal 12 months. Different steps to stability the present fiscal 12 months funds have included briefly closing two hearth stations, cancelling all police-training academies and slashing $2.6 million in funding for out of doors nonprofits and a number of different grants and citywide applications.
Within the course of, a number of companies — amongst them Moody’s, Fitch and S&P — have lowered Oakland’s bond ranking, making it costlier for town to borrow cash for infrastructure initiatives. That might complicate plans outlined Monday by Jenkins to purchase $180 million in bonds for inexpensive housing initiatives over the subsequent two years, together with $50 million in bonds for avenue paving initiatives.
Oakland isn’t the one municipality within the Bay Space to wrestle financially. San Francisco faces a $876 million shortfall over that very same two-year time interval, whereas town of San Jose is grappling with a $60 million shortfall within the coming fiscal 12 months.
Distinctive to Oakland, nevertheless, is a run of deep political upheaval inside the mayor’s workplace. In November 2022, voters recalled town’s former mayor, Sheng Thao, barely two years into her first time period. About two months later, a federal grand jury indicted Thao — alongside along with her romantic associate and the father-and-son duo operating town’s recycling contractor — on federal bribery expenses tied to an alleged pay-to-pay bribery scheme.
Because the recall election, two councilmembers have served as interim mayors, together with Jenkins, who authored the funds launched Monday. Town’s fourth mayor in seven months — Lee — is predicted to be sworn into workplace later this month with the purpose of serving out the rest of Thao’s unique four-year time period.
The funds’s rollout was, itself, a rocky course of. Jenkins final week delayed its launch by 4 days, citing “a period of transition following the recent election.” The announcement got here two weeks after Finance Director Erin Roseman submitted her letter of resignation amid rising scrutiny over her dealing with of town’s coffers.
Additionally lacking not too long ago has been any trace of town’s newest five-year monetary forecast, which is usually launched within the weeks forward of the mayor’s two-year funds proposal. Metropolis officers count on that doc to be launched by the top of the month.
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