A Message from Jane Brunner
A recent State Supreme Court ruling allowed the State of California to eliminate redevelopment on February 1st 2012. This has immediate, serious impacts on Oakland. Not only is redevelopment the primary tool that the City has to encourage new development, but it also provides some funding for almost all City Departments.
The loss of redevelopment funding forced the City to re-open its budgeting process with a new deficit of $28 Million. This was especially difficult since we had just passed a balanced 2-year budget in July of last year.
The Mayor and City Administrator put forward a budget and then I joined 3 other Councilmembers to propose an alternative budget that was adopted on January 31st. This budget preserves front-line City services including police, fire, libraries, senior centers and recreation centers, while reorganizing the City to eliminate layers of administration. Nonetheless, there will be a lot of pain as more than 80 City Associates lose their positions. See the back page for a summary of the adopted budget.
Deanna Santana, our new City administrator, is doing an excellent job. Please read the interview with Deanna inside this newsletter for more information about Deanna’s background and beliefs and come to meet her at my next community advisory meeting on February 25th.
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