As Oakland approaches a leadership change with Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee's upcoming swearing-in, interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins presented a two-year budget focusing on safety. The plan seeks to restore funding to six police academies while cutting police overtime, aligning with community safety needs. Fire services will face cuts, but the passing of Measure A will keep some firehouses operational. Overall, the budget proposes eliminating 400 vacant city jobs and hints at a potential tax measure for 2026 to aid financial stability.
"I speak with the mayor-elect almost every morning and she's had some input, but it's been a short time since she has been declared the winner of the mayor election, so probably not as much as she would have liked."
"I think from a visibility standpoint, getting us back to at least that 700 number in regards to NN, to where we can staff different events without the use of overtime."
"As a fire department we understand we're a spoke in the wheel, we're part of the public safety team everybody has had to take some level of cut."
"If the measure had not passed, we would have been looking at a bleak situation for fire because closing four firehouses would be extraordinarily impactful on our city."
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