Dom’s Recent Blog Post_23 May 10
This month, the big question I have is: “Who speaks for the citizens in this town?” What about them? Who really cares about them? It doesn’t appear anyone at City Hall cares.
Let me start by saying this: I have proudly served this city for 20 years; I (amongst others) have made many personal sacrifices to make you (citizen of Oakland) safe. I have watched many of my co-workers lose their lives striving for the same goal. To make OAKLAND SAFE. I have proudly dedicating my life to making this town better and I will do so for the rest of my career. I bravely accept the risks, and if I could do it all over again I would.
I know I share the sentiments of all men and women that serve this community. I know the challenges that face this town. After several years of watching the highs and lows, I recently found that we have a young invigorated group of young police officers and a motivated Police Chief. I see things going in the right direction. Crime is steadily going down, more officers are on the street, and response times are better than they use to be.
The leadership of this city, however, is talking about making a bold move of laying off 200 police officers to balance the budget. The city politicians will try to shift the blame, but “the GIG is up.” It will be THEIR decision to lay off police officers. Their decision will make it unsafe for all citizens who live and visit this town. Without question, this decision will result in higher crime and increase in murders. Yes, more people will die!!!!
Let me just cut right into where we are. As this economy is falling, so are the projected revenues for Oakland 2010-2011. Last year we agreed to a concession contract, providing in excess of $34 million in savings to the city. The reason we did this was to help the city through this unprecedented fiscal crisis. We believed we were doing the right thing for Oakland, our members, and our community. Read Brother Barry’s Blog this month; he touches more on this and he is right on the money!!!!
Did you know that throughout this whole financial crisis the City of Oakland has only had 68 layoffs? Just 68! In this financial climate you would think that they would have cut all the “nice to have programs” in favor of the city’s core mission, protecting its citizens. Not in Oakland. A restructure of Measure Y was urged by the OPOA last year along with recommended cuts of the NSCs and CPRB never happened. It’s safe to say, no one was paying attention to this, or the powers in town did not care. The public’s safety doesn’t seem to be important.
So now the city has a $30-40 million dollar deficit. This city government had elected to bridge this gap by laying off cops and risking public safety and the lives of its citizens.
Why us? The city reports that police and fire are 85% of the budget. So in order to save money from the police department they must go under our minimum staffing of 739. That means laying-off ALL measure Y officers, then another 24 officers to make up another $4 millon in lost revenue from Measure Y that must be back-filled from the general fund. Then the city hopes to save another $30 million from the police department. That means 150 real police officers. So the grand total for lay-offs could be as high as 180-200 police officers.
At this point the OPOA board has agreed to allow the executive board to listen and talk with the city. However, the OPOA will not be bullied by the city; we have already given up millions of dollars. I am in no position to take any more steps back.
Stay tuned to this site for upcoming important information.
Dom Arotzarena
OPOA President
Arotzarena@opoa.org
