by Sarah Ravani

Several Oakland City Council members proposed Monday cutting about $18.4 million from the Oakland Police Department to fund violence prevention and social services amid a debate over how to keep cities safe while addressing the need for more support in some communities.

In May, Mayor Libby Schaaf proposed a budget that allocated $700 million to the police department — meaning the council proposal would trim about 2.6% from the total, a small fraction of the 50% the council said last summer it planned to cut from the department’s budget.

Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas said the decision to chip away at the police budget in smaller increments is deliberate because the right systems and programs need to be in place to replace some police activities.

“That goal is still a goal,” Bas said. “It will take time and what we are doing with this budget is saying we are committed to this goal of transforming our public safety system.”

Still, Schaaf’s office criticized the proposed public safety cuts as a threat to keeping the city safe amid rising gun violence.

Bas worked on the amendments with a budget team made up of council members Carroll Fife, Dan Kalb and Noel Gallo, and the full City Council will discuss the proposed amendments at a Thursday meeting.

Bas discussed the public safety amendments and other proposed changes to Schaaf’s $3.85 billion two-year budget proposal at a Monday news conference. She said the amendments would “deeply invest in our community” by creating affordable housing, better maintaining parks, providing sanitation services to 100 homeless encampments and bolstering Department of Violence Prevention funding.

Bas’ plan would strip millions from the police department by eliminating two police academies over two years and freezing those positions. Schaaf had proposed six police academies over two years. The number of police recruits who graduate per academy varies, but is usually in the low 20s.

“We know that our police officers are overstretched,” Bas said. “For decades, they have been called upon to respond to everything under the sun.”

Instead, the department’s officers will focus on what they do best: respond to and solve violent crime, she added.

Schaaf saw the proposal differently.

“Oaklanders need to know this budget proposal will severely deplete 911 response” by cutting officers, the mayor’s spokesman Justin Berton said. “On Sunday night in East Oakland, 100 calls to 911 went unanswered as an already understaffed department responded to an extreme surge in gun violence and human trauma in our community. Every Oaklander deserves a dependable response in their moment of crisis.”

The public’s views on funding for police are nuanced. The city surveyed 1,862 randomly selected residents in December and January, during a concerning spike in homicides. The survey found that 78% of respondents said they want the same or more police patrolling their neighborhoods and responding to 911 calls, and nearly 60% supported removing police from nonviolent situations and mental health calls.

Bas introduced the budget amendments at a news conference in downtown Oakland in front of a mural of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police officers in Kentucky last year.

“This is a response to how hard this year has been,” Bas said. “This past year I have talked to countless people who have lost their jobs, who have lost loved ones due to COVID. I have joined healing circles with families who have lost loved ones to gun violence.”

Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, questioned how a smaller force would be able to respond to violent crime.

“I would worry about what would happen in the long term if you make the police department even smaller,” he said. “We will see how Oakland does with a smaller police force.”

Bas said by only eliminating two police academies, the department will be able to maintain staffing levels above the minimum requirement of 678 officers.

One program intended to transform the system would create a team within the Fire Department to replace police with trained mental health workers on certain calls, such as responding to people who are publicly intoxicated, disturbing the peace or acting erratically.

Bas is proposing an additional $3.6 million invested in the program — called MACRO for Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland — to bring its total budget to about $6 million. It would allow the Fire Department to provide 18 months of service to East Oakland with a team of four.

Schaaf’s office said the city announced last week an additional $34 million to expand non-police and violence prevention programs. Donelan of the police union said he supports investing in programs like MACRO that eliminate certain 911 calls from the police.

The City Council budget team also wants to allocate an additional $17 million to the city’s Department of Violence Prevention. In 2020, that department, which was tasked with reducing violent crime in the city by 80% over three years, ran on an annual budget of $10.1 million. Oakland is facing a historic rise in violent with more than 55 homicides so far this year.

Kalb said investing in violent crime and violence prevention is “very important.”

“That is long overdue,” he said.

The council is required to pass the next two-year budget by June 30.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani