When the dust settles, roughly 100 people will be affected, either through layoffs or position bumps.
OAKLAND — Oakland leaders say about 100 city workers will be laid off or demoted this week and next as the full consequences of the city’s devastating financial crisis take shape.
Individual layoff notices went out Thursday to workers who fill 77 full-time city positions, hitting hardest the public works and Oakland police departments, which respectively will lose 26 and 19 positions.
More will come next week. When the dust settles, roughly 100 people will be affected, either through layoffs or position bumps, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said in a statement.
The cuts to police are limited to non-sworn positions due to an agreement in the police officers union’s current contract that restricts cops from being laid off.
Otherwise, the staffing reductions are spread widely through the city’s various areas of public service, from two in the fire department, to a pair to three in the planning and building department, to four in the city’s police commission, which oversees local law enforcement.
“Today’s steps are unfortunate, and difficult,” Johnson said in a statement. “I won’t sugarcoat that, but I do want you all to know we are moving toward a long-term financial stability this City has desperately needed for too long.”
Police overtime has been the biggest source of overspending at the cash-strapped city, which also has fallen short of what it expected to bring in from once-reliable revenue streams, including from taxes on real-estate transfers and business licenses.
The city’s fire department, which also overspends its budget, saw two fire stations temporarily close, with more brownouts expected in February. Police academies designed to train cadets have been canceled through June.
A big bet by ex-Mayor Sheng Thao, who was recalled by voters last November, to expedite a planned sale of the city’s Coliseum share — and use the revenue to pay city salaries — has also fallen short of expectations.
The sale could still be completed this year with Alameda County’s sign-off, but the revenue isn’t slated to arrive until the end of May, just ahead of when the fiscal year ends a month later.
The mayor’s office — now led by Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, who will serve until after the April 15 special election to replace Thao — had its own cuts to at-will employees on Jan. 17. City leaders will pursue voter approval of a new sales tax in the same special election.
Leaders for the city’s largest public-employees unions, SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21, did not immediately respond to interview requests.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.
OAKLAND — Oakland leaders say about 100 city workers will be laid off or demoted this week and next as the full consequences of the city’s devastating financial crisis take shape.
Individual layoff notices went out Thursday to workers who fill 77 full-time city positions, with the public works and police departments — which respectively will lose 26 and 19 positions — hit the hardest.
More will come next week, and when the dust settles, roughly 100 people will be affected, either through layoffs or demotions, City Administrator Jestin Johnson said in a memo to workers.
The cuts to police are limited to non-sworn positions due to an agreement in the police officers union’s current contract that restricts cops from being laid off.
Otherwise, the staffing reductions are spread widely through the city’s various areas of public service, including two in the fire department, three in the planning and building department, and four in the city’s police commission, which oversees local law enforcement.
“Today’s steps are unfortunate, and difficult,” Johnson said in the memo. “I won’t sugarcoat that, but I do want you all to know we are moving toward a long-term financial stability this City has desperately needed for too long.”
Police overtime has been the biggest source of overspending at the cash-strapped city, which also has fallen short of what it expected to bring in from once-reliable revenue streams, including from taxes on real-estate transfers and business licenses.
The city’s fire department, which also overspends its budget, has seen two fire stations temporarily close, with additional brownouts expected in February. Police academies designed to train cadets have been canceled through June.
Johnson also announced this week that funding would be slashed for numerous nonprofits that contract with the city, including the legal group Centro Legal de la Raza, the Downtown Oakland Association, Meals on Wheels and the mutual-aid organization Trybe.
Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, a former staff attorney for Centro Legal de la Raza, posted an Instagram video Thursday criticizing Johnson’s decision to cut nonprofit funding, saying he had “decided to unilaterally do this as a cost-saving measure.”
“As chair of our city’s finance committee, I never heard of this until yesterday,” Ramachandran said. “At the same time where all of the nonprofits who were told that their contracts were terminated — we found out at the same time.”
Others on the council echoed that they hadn’t heard of the layoffs before Johnson’s memo became public, a sign of how the city’s leadership is in flux after ex-Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled by voters last November.
In an interview, Councilmember Carroll Fife expressed disappointment that the reductions had not more proportionately impacted the city’s largest overspender: the Oakland Police Department. She added, though, that OPD may indeed need more officers in the long term.
“The point is that we really have to look at where there’s a leak and not be political about it, not get in our feelings about it,” Fife said in an interview. “And when we find it, we address it head on, or we’re going to continue with the deficit year after year after year.”
Other programs funded by the city had already been cut, such as a $5 parking garage incentive that Thao had created to bolster downtown business traffic. The historic Arts and Soul festival is among the many recipients of cultural grants that can safely count out being funded this year.
Meanwhile, a big bet by Thao to expedite a planned sale of the city’s Coliseum share and use the revenue to pay city salaries is falling short of expectations.
The sale could still be completed this year with Alameda County’s sign-off, but the revenue isn’t slated to arrive until the end of May, just ahead of when the fiscal year ends a month later.
The mayor’s office — now led by Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, who will serve until after the April 15 special election to replace Thao — had its own cuts to at-will employees on Jan. 17. City leaders will pursue voter approval of a new sales tax in the same special election.
By Friday afternoon, leaders for the city’s largest public-employees unions, SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21, had not responded to multiple interview requests or issued an official statement on the layoffs.
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.