More details of Randy’s run can be found at:

Randy’s web site:

http://www.popeforoakley.com

Randy’s facebook page:
facebook.com/poperandy

Officer Todd Young, a Fremont police officer was critically wounded in a shootout Friday with a gang member in East Oakland, who then stole a car at gunpoint and fled. The officer, a six-year veteran of the force, suffered gunshot wounds to the pelvis and groin during the exchange at 2:38 p.m. near the corner of Auseon and Bancroft Avenues. He underwent surgery at Highland Hospital late Friday.

“We’re all on pins and needles – he’s hour to hour,” Fremont Police Chief Craig Steckler said.

Dr. Javid Sadjadi said the officer had lost a significant amount of blood. He said the officer was in critical but stable condition and had suffered “rather extreme injuries – it’s really touch and go.” The Todd has gone through over 60 units of blood.

You can help by donating blood at your local American Red Cross for Todd Young.

You can schedule and appointment at any of the below American Red Cross locations by calling 1-800-448-3543, second contact number is 1-800-733-2767 or by going to www.redcrossbayarea.org.

There are five (5) American Red Cross Agencies in the Bay Area that are accepting donations.

Pleasant Hill
140 Gregory Lane Ste 120
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

Oakland
6230 Claremont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618

Pleasanton
5556 N Springdale Avenue
Pleasanton, CA 94588

San Jose
2731 North 1st Street
San Jose, CA

Fremont
39227 Cedar Blvd
Fremont, CA 94560

Thank you,

http://www.cityofslt.us/humanresources

INVITES APPLICATIONS FOR THE POSITION OF:
Police Officer Lateral
An Equal Opportunity Employer
SALARY
$28.56 – $34.72 Hourly
$4,949.71 – $6,017.54 Monthly
$59,396.48 – $72,210.53 Annually

OPENING DATE: 07/29/10
CLOSING DATE: 08/29/10-05:00 PM

——————————————

The Burlington Police Department in Vermont is now hiring. www.BPDVT.org

Oakland, CA – Frustrated by recent comments made by City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) has decided it is time to ask Councilman De La Fuente to articulate his vision of how the City of Oakland will get out of its present economic crisis. OPOA’s concern is that after 18 years in office, Councilman De La Fuente has run out of ideas.

“We’ve signed a contract, and we’ve done our job,” said OPOA President Dom Arotzarena. “However, we also voluntarily reopened our contract to work with responsible members of the City Council to find solutions that guarantee police officers will be working our community’s dangerous streets. Included in this agreement, Oakland police officers will be contributing the full 9% towards our pensions. We have already voluntarily made more than $34 million in concessions and agreed to a two-tier retirement system that reflects systemic change.”

The OPOA is frustrated that Councilman De La Fuente has made irresponsible statements, including such foolishness as stating that the number of police officers on the streets has no correlation to the crime rate.

“We have known De La Fuente a long time,” said Arotzarena. “We remember on March 22, 2006 when De La Fuente was Council President and co-authored a resolution for the Police Department to fill its 101 vacant positions and be at full staffing with a total of 802 officers by January 31, 2007. De La Fuente believed it was so urgent to get more police officers on the street that he also sponsored a resolution for outside academies to train more police officers.”

“We also remember April 27, 2006, when De La Fuente was running for Mayor of Oakland. He said that fighting crime was his top priority. He was also quoted as saying, ‘To be totally honest, we should be ashamed of the poor job we do when it comes to our basic services; and that’s because there is no accountability in this government. There’s no performance-based measurements that create an environment where people do the job they were paid to do.’ De La Fuente went on to say, ‘The problem with Oakland is not money, not resources. The problem with Oakland is that we don’t manage those resources. We have become very inefficient, unaccountable, structured bureaucracy. I’m going to change that.’”

When Oakland police officers made concessions last year, we said reform was needed. We were ignored. De La Fuente has not done his job, and the problem has worsened.

The Oakland police officers are doing our job under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

Unfortunately, De La Fuente has turned into a bitter, out-of-tune, out-of-touch politician who not only has not fixed the bureaucracy that he knew was in trouble, but has failed to offer real answers toward resolving our City’s budget problems and keeping our streets safe.

De La Fuente, who has criticized others for not doing their job or paying into their pensions, could probably do well to answer questions not only regarding a positive vision for the people of Oakland, but how much he pays into his own PERS pension account as a City Councilmember and whether or not he is conflicted by holding more than one job at the same time. There is the concern that he has turned into a demagogue with a foul disposition and an inability to find consensus, rather than the political leader who once held promise.

“Unfortunately, while the troubled bureaucracies that De La Fuente highlighted during his campaign have been left relatively unscathed by any cuts, Oakland lost more than 80 police officers and there is the threat of losing more,” said Arotzarena.

There are now more than 40 different crimes for which Oakland police officers will no longer respond to because of budget cuts, and the streets of Oakland will not become safe with less police officers on the job. Perhaps the citizens of Oakland should start considering whether or not individuals like Ignacio De La Fuente care enough about this community to do the job appropriately. In our estimation, there is enough anger and frustration to go around, and if an elected official like De La Fuente can’t do his job, then perhaps he should be recalled.

Last month, Oakland – California’s most dangerous city – laid-off 80 police officers. Oakland police officers were painted as the bad guys when we were the first ones to say there was a problem. We not only highlighted the problem, we gave $34 million in concessions last year. We told City Hall then that they needed to do something about their own mismanagement and address the need for new resources.

The prospect of losing more police officers, maybe as many as another 150 through layoffs, is very real. The City Council has already voted to layoff another 122 officers. More layoffs of police officers will further endanger our citizens and the lives of our officers. There are 44 crimes that we will no longer respond to due to cutbacks. City leaders have proposed a revenue-generating ballot measure. Oakland police officers view this as an opportunity to partner with the citizens of Oakland and their elected leadership to generate funds. In offering our support we also tighten our own belts again. Oakland police officers voted overwhelmingly for further contract concessions, specifically on our pensions. We will pay 9% toward our pensions and institute a two-tier retirement.

Each week, more and more of our 80 laid-off police officers are finding homes in other agencies. In talking to other law enforcement agencies they express the view that “Oakland’s loss is their gain.” Other agencies and communities are ecstatic at the quality and experience of our Oakland police officers. As always, our reputation speaks for itself.

I encourage you to continue monitoring www.OPOA.org and our Facebook page as events unfold in the coming weeks and months.

As always, I welcome your comments on these or other issues. You can email me at donelan@opoa.com or call me at the Association (510) 834-9670.

Stay safe, keep your heads up and take care of one another.

Barry Donelan
Vice President, OPOA
donelan@opoa.org

We then released the following statement to the media, and met with reporters in our offices.

The Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) understands more than most the consequences of the budget problems that confront our city.

We have seen the number of our officers on the street go from 803 two years ago to less than seven hundred. Just in the past month, eighty of our community’s police officers were laid off and the streets in which we work became increasingly dangerous and the crimes to which we respond have now been limited. It is a dangerous situation for all of us.

We have done our best to be part of the solution in Oakland. Last year we made $34 million worth of concessions. Over the past couple of weeks we have continued to work with our City Council to put together long-term solutions. In that effort our members voted and we have agreed to the following:

1. We have agreed to pay an additional 7 percent contribution to now pay the full 9 percent cost of our pensions.

2. We have agreed to a two-tier pension system for new employees. New hires will now retire at 3 percent at 55.

We have also agreed to work with the City Council to help educate the voters on the benefits of the new parcel tax initiative being proposed by the City Council.

Oakland police officers remain committed to our community. We want enough police officers to keep our streets safe and the officers patrolling them not to be in constant danger.

We believe Oakland can still be a great City. It is important for all of us to stand together and say we want to make Oakland a place we are proud to call home and not a war zone that families and businesses want to avoid.

We will continue to work to keep you, our community, informed. Thank you.