Dear Oaklanders:

 

            As you probably know, we now have two declared candidates for next year’s mayoral election, Don Perata and Jean Quan.  We likely will have more. (Clint Killian at Oakbook has just suggested Willie Brown may run!)  If there is no “instant run-off” in 2010 (you can see good coverage on the instant run-off issue at SF Gate’s Oakland Blog here and the East Bay Express here), there will be a primary in June, a run-off in November (if necessary), and a mayoral campaign season starting in February.

 

While Make Oakland Better Now! has been quiet for the last two months, it hasn’t been idle.  This very long post  will bring you up to date on the following:

 

• Our agenda and plans for future meetings
• What you can do to help
• Proposed changes in Make Oakland Better Now! Management
• Plans for the Make Oakland Better Now! web site

• What’s happening with the Public Safety, Public Works  and Transparency/Accountability / Budget Committees.

 

Agenda and Plans for Future Meetings

 

            The most common question we hear is this:  When are we going to meet again?  So here’s the current thinking.

 

            Assuming there is no “instant run-off” in next year’s mayoral election (meaning there will be a primary election in June), campaign season will probably start in earnest in February.  Therefore, we will plan to meet as a group in January to either adopt positions related to each of our areas of interest, or agree on issues of concern.

 

            Here’s the difference:  An example of an agreed position would be “Make Oakland Better Now! believes that the City of Oakland must make every effort to enact a parcel tax sufficient to increase the number of sworn police officers to 1050.”  Another would be “Make Oakland Better Now! believes that the City of Oakland must re-prioritize its general fund spending so that it begins creating a reasonable reserve for street maintenance and repair.”

 

            The corresponding “issues of concern” would be these:  “We believe every mayoral candidate must publicly express his or her opinion as to what the city’s level of sworn peace officers should be.  If this requires an increase, the candidate must identify funding sources and a time line.”  And, “We believe every candidate must explain to all Oaklanders his or her plan to address street maintenance and repair, including how those should be prioritized, what funding would be identified, what other city functions would be reduced (if any) and a time line.”

 

            Once we have either adopted positions or issues of concern, and once we have increased our numbers sufficiently to be a force to be reckoned with, we will be ready to use our numbers to seek commitments from the candidates on our issues or positions.

 

            Here is an approximate schedule: 

 

• From now until December:  committee leadership and volunteers will research potential positions and / or issues of concern;
• December:  committee members either meet, or are polled, to adopt recommendations for positions and /or issues of concern we will schedule January meeting, identify centrally available location and begin a massive publicity campaign;
• January:  plenary meeting of Make Oakland Better Now! for adoption  of positions and/or issues of concern.
• February and following:  Candidate nights and other forums to force candidate positions on our issues.  Our plan is to be large and significant enough to have our own candidate nights.

 

What You Can Do To Help:

 

Each of our committees needs researchers.  We need people to identify relevant documents, read them, and help figure out how they fit into, or help with our agenda.  Each of our committees needs somebody to act as the “reporter” —writing up the results of committee activities to report to MOBN! on the web site. 

 

As discussed below, we need more Make Oakland Better Now! executive board members. We need a broader base to help steer the group’s activities. 

 

Although we aren’t recruiting for this yet, starting in December we will need lots of people to publicize our next meeting.  Everyone who signed up for “outreach” will hear from us, but we’ll need as many people as we can get.

 

Finally, we will need a large, easily accessible and centrally located site for the anticipated January meeting.  This has proven to be difficult.  Almost none of the libraries have sufficient space.  Some of the churches do, and they rent them out, but they have been really non-responsive to our inquiries.  Schools are difficult to get after hours.  So if you have a good contact at a venue near downtown or uptown that can hold at least 200 people, and if you can use that contact to try to get this venue problem off dead center, please let us know.

 

If you can help with any of these things, or if you want to be more involved in  any way, please e-mail your name and telephone number to: Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org.  Somebody will get back to you shortly.

 

Make Oakland Better Now! Management: 

 

So far, management of MOBN! has been pretty ad hoc.  Initial decisions were made by a self-selected “publicity committee,” whose decisions were partly substantive but primarily directed to getting as many people as possible to our August meeting.  Thereafter, the heads of the three committees and a few others who had been deeply involved in this process participated in conference calls to make some decisions about what should happen next. 

 

But it seems clear that we now need an executive board that is willing to do a little bit more than come to MOBN! meetings.  We anticipate that board members would consist of myself, the committee heads, and five to six others who are willing to commit to a conference call every two to four weeks, an executive board meeting every month or two, and taking on a little bit of extra work with respect to community outreach, communications and some of the nuts and bolts of organizing future meetings. 

 

We know that the people who volunteer for this kind of work are already busy.  But we also know this is really important work, and it is most apt to get done if we can get sufficiently broad involvement.  So please, this is a chance to make a difference.  Please send an e-mail to Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetternow.org telling me of your interest.  Include your name and telephone number(s), and someone will contact you..

 

Plans for the Make Oakland Better Now! Web Site

 

            Through the hard work of Karen Ivy and Steve Linden, our web site is being completely revamped.  When MOBN!’s web site 2.0 is released, you will find pages about the work of each of our committees, links to all kinds of useful city information, and a repository of city documents.  We’ll regularly update it with information about all kinds of upcoming city and city-related meetings, and news relevant to MOBN!’s three issues. 

 

In addition, the site will be interactive — we’re going to ask you and all visitors to the site to tell us what you love about our city and what you want to see changed.  You will have an opportunity to buy t-shirts and other MOBN! paraphernalia and to (ahem), make donations, since many of the things we are doing cost real money.  The Make Oakland Better Now! web site will be the main way we communicate with each other.  It should be up and running in the next two to three weeks — so watch for it. 

 

 

Public Safety:

 

            What has happened so far:  A small number of Public Safety Committee members have

 

• Undertaken a large amount of research concerning our new Police Chief, Anthony Batts, including his positions and accomplishments while with the City of Long Beach;
• Heard a presentation by, and met with, Chief Batts (and former Acting Chief Jordan) during Council Member Brunner’s monthly constituent meeting;
• Acquired a good working knowledge of the “Negotiated Settlement Agreement,” the recent Police Department Internal Affairs Division report, a fair amount of community policing data, Rand’s Measure Y report, the City Auditor’s Measure Y audit; and
• Reviewed FBI data concerning police department staffing levels nation- wide.

 

Of particular interest was Chief Batts’ recent presentation.  Directly below is Jim Blachman’s summary from that presentation and his brief meeting with the Chief afterwards.

 

Chief Batts’ presentation:

 

The Chief’s take on “roles and responsibilities”:

• The police Dept. is only one actor in improving Oakland
• Programs by themselves won’t solve the problems (e.g., stopping the “sideshow” groups attracted to Oakland each weekend)
• Improving public safety throughout Oakland requires involvement of the whole community:
  • Neighborhoods, families, schools
  • Businesses
  • Churches and civic organizations
  • Other government agencies

 

His “action plan”:

• Create a short-term plan based on “customer service” while building a longer term (3 – 5 year) strategic plan.
• The customer service plan will meet the expressed concerns of Oakland’s citizens (e.g., in Long Beach, the process identified response times needed to improve.)
• The long term plan deals with substantive and chronic issues
  • Dept. budgets, staffing and training
  • Policing strategy e.g.:
    • On-street drugs and Oakland’s role as N. Calif. Narcotics hub
    • Student safety, truancy and juvenile crime
    • Convict re-entry and management (the chief noted Oakland had a some success under programs instituted under Jerry Brown)
    • Community policing and community involvement

 

The chief’s comments as they relate to MOBN! Public Safety’s top issues

 

While he did not address all our listed top issues, he DID touch on many of our key points:

 

1. Department Strategy, priorities, resources, budgets & practices
   1. Strategy/goals/priorities  (See above – the Dept will create a strategic plan)
   2. Staff non-police activities w/ civilians (While chief in Long Beach, they shifted some paperwork chores in the Detectives unit from sworn officers to civilians)
   3. Deployment and policing methodology (will address in strategic plan) (note: Long Beach has success with curfew for minors and the chief wondered why Oakland hasn’t adopted this)
   4. Access to key infrastructure (e.g., no fingerprinting unit) (take advantage of  and share other law enforcement group’s resources)
   5. Real preparation for natural disaster (fire, e-quake)
2. Client Service and Community Relations
   1. Articulated strategy to improve relations in key constituencies (See above – the Dept will create a customer service strategy)
   2. Measure/report performance (activity in settlements of complaints, response times, customer satisfaction scores, etc.) (As part of their customer service plan, Long Beach measures and reports key department performance statistics)
   3. Improve transitional support for parolees and ex-cons (see above - the chief noted Oakland had a some success under programs instituted under Jerry Brown)

 

 

Jim introduced himself to Chief Batts and briefly explained Make Oakland Better Now’s plan to insert our policy positions/recommendations into the mayoral election. The Chief literally completed Jim’s sentence with the following words: “hold the elected officials accountable for putting the recommendations into action, I like that!”

 

Anthony Batts is poised, committed, energetic and a great “brand” for the city of Oakland. You can tell his career at the state/national  level depends on creating success in Oakland. He plans to live in the city, which is terrific.  And he’s counting on involvement of Oakland citizens.

 

            Want to meet Chief Batts yourself? There are a ton of opportunities coming up.  You can get information about the current opportunities to meet Chief Batts at Susan Mernit’s new site, Oakland Local, here. 

 

            What needs to happen next with public safety? 

 

The Public Safety Committee wants to obtain the broadest available number of informed views on the questions of what the City of Oakland should do to:

 

• Restore the confidence in the police department from the city’s citizens including all neighborhoods and across all demographics
• Implement a meaningful and workable public service approach to law enforcement
• Maximize utilization of non-sworn personnel
• Implement strategies for reducing and addressing citizen / police complaints to a point where police litigation costs are significantly reduced and the department can be relieved of the need for the Negotiated Settlement Agreement
• Improve transitional support for parolees and ex-cons, as well as oversight for those programs
• Maintain staffing at current authorized levels
• Assess the level of sworn and unsworn personnel necessary to meet community law enforcement expectations
• Create the political climate that will support bringing police staffing levels to a point that conforms with the assessment.

 

We have reached out to a number of current and former police and other city and county employees (including some at very high levels), community activists, “insiders” from the Allen v. City of Oakland case (the Riders case, which resulted in the Negotiated Settlement Agreement), as well as academics and long-time politically connected Oaklanders from a wide range of communities. We intend to ask them questions such as those listed above, as well as the questions “What should we be reading?” and  “Who has studied these questions before?”

 

As mentioned above, we need more committee members to help with some of the heavy lifting.  Again, you can tell us if you can help by e-mailing Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org.

 

            Public Works:

 

At our kick-off meeting, the Public Works Committee’s discussion elicited a huge number of possible areas of interest.  In order to narrow the scope, we undertook a survey, and the greatest interest seemed to be in  (a) streets (repair, signage, potholes), lighting and sidewalks; and (b) parks and recreation facility maintenance. 

 

The City Auditor issued a report in April recommending improvements to the Public Works function, and the Public Works Agency responded.  Here’s the problem:  the recommendations and the responsesare 577 pages long.  We need a team of perhaps 2 or 3 people to divide up the work of reviewing all of this, determine which of the 200 recommendations are relevant, which have been implemented, which have not, and what questions are raised as a result of this audit report. 

 

With respect to parks, the funding to city parks took an enormous hit as part of the recent budget process.  But we need to know exactly what that means, and be in a position to ask intelligent and forward-looking questions about how to improve things.  Specifically, we need 2 or 3 people to review relevant portions of the city budget and the documents that were generated concerning parks as part of the budget process, then advise the group as to what questions are  relevant.

 

So, we need 4 – 6 volunteers from the Public Works Committee to do some reading and analysis and make recommendations.  We will provide you with a hard copy of the City Auditor’s Public Works report if you are working on the streets, lighting and sidewalks part, and a copy of applicable budget sections if you are working on the parks and recreation facilities issue. Finally, this committee also needs a reporter – somebody able to add content to the web site letting everybody know what this committee is doing.  If you can help here, please e-mail Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetter.org with your name and number, and someone will contact you.

 

Transparency/Accountability/Budget (The “TAB” Committee)

 

This committee hit an unexpectedand unavoidable bump in the road when its initial leader was forced to step down because of pressing family issues.  However, I am happy to report that Preston Grant and Nathan Stalnaker have stepped up to form the leadership team.  And they have been very active.

 

As many of you may know, early this year the city spent some $175,000 to have PFM Group (led by former City Manager Robert Bobb) prepare a report on how to reorganize the Mayors’ office and the departments that report to the mayor. Some of the report’s recommendations are fairly general, and some are very specific to the current administration.   In a few instances, the administration responded by making personnel changes (although the report did not specifically recommend such changes).  In more instances, the administration did not respond.

 

It seems clear that by following some of the more specific, as yet unimplemented recommendations, the city could increase accountability, transparency and efficiency by an enormous amount.  So one of the things this committee can do quickly is distill this report down to a manageable list of action issues for the next adminstration.

 

This month, the City Auditor’s office released its contractor’s audit of the city’s personnel practices.  The committee needs to decide whether policy recommendations can be and/or should be distilled from this documentas well.

 

We also need 2 or 3 qualified people willing to parse the budget.  If you are willing to sit down with this ponderous (500+ page) document and be prepared to give the committee advice on what it means, please e-mail Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org with your name and telephone number, and someone will contact you.

 

Conclusion:  That’s the report for now.  Want to help us move things forward?  Leave your name and number via e-mail at Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetternow.org.

 

           

           

Dear Oaklanders:

 

            As you probably know, we now have two declared candidates for next year’s mayoral election, Don Perata and Jean Quan.  We likely will have more. (Clint Killian at Oakbook has just suggested Willie Brown may run!)  If there is no “instant run-off” in 2010 (you can see good coverage on the instant run-off issue at SF Gate’s Oakland Blog here and the East Bay Express here), there will be a primary in June, a run-off in November (if necessary), and a mayoral campaign season starting in February.

 

While Make Oakland Better Now! has been quiet for the last two months, it hasn’t been idle.  This very long post  will bring you up to date on the following:

 

• Our agenda and plans for future meetings
• What you can do to help
• Proposed changes in Make Oakland Better Now! Management
• Plans for the Make Oakland Better Now! web site

• What’s happening with the Public Safety, Public Works  and Transparency/Accountability / Budget Committees.

 

Agenda and Plans for Future Meetings

 

            The most common question we hear is this:  When are we going to meet again?  So here’s the current thinking.

 

            Assuming there is no “instant run-off” in next year’s mayoral election (meaning there will be a primary election in June), campaign season will probably start in earnest in February.  Therefore, we will plan to meet as a group in January to either adopt positions related to each of our areas of interest, or agree on issues of concern.

 

            Here’s the difference:  An example of an agreed position would be “Make Oakland Better Now! believes that the City of Oakland must make every effort to enact a parcel tax sufficient to increase the number of sworn police officers to 1050.”  Another would be “Make Oakland Better Now! believes that the City of Oakland must re-prioritize its general fund spending so that it begins creating a reasonable reserve for street maintenance and repair.”

 

            The corresponding “issues of concern” would be these:  “We believe every mayoral candidate must publicly express his or her opinion as to what the city’s level of sworn peace officers should be.  If this requires an increase, the candidate must identify funding sources and a time line.”  And, “We believe every candidate must explain to all Oaklanders his or her plan to address street maintenance and repair, including how those should be prioritized, what funding would be identified, what other city functions would be reduced (if any) and a time line.”

 

            Once we have either adopted positions or issues of concern, and once we have increased our numbers sufficiently to be a force to be reckoned with, we will be ready to use our numbers to seek commitments from the candidates on our issues or positions.

 

            Here is an approximate schedule: 

 

• From now until December:  committee leadership and volunteers will research potential positions and / or issues of concern;
• December:  committee members either meet, or are polled, to adopt recommendations for positions and /or issues of concern we will schedule January meeting, identify centrally available location and begin a massive publicity campaign;
• January:  plenary meeting of Make Oakland Better Now! for adoption  of positions and/or issues of concern.
• February and following:  Candidate nights and other forums to force candidate positions on our issues.  Our plan is to be large and significant enough to have our own candidate nights.

 

What You Can Do To Help:

 

Each of our committees needs researchers.  We need people to identify relevant documents, read them, and help figure out how they fit into, or help with our agenda.  Each of our committees needs somebody to act as the “reporter” —writing up the results of committee activities to report to MOBN! on the web site. 

 

As discussed below, we need more Make Oakland Better Now! executive board members. We need a broader base to help steer the group’s activities. 

 

Although we aren’t recruiting for this yet, starting in December we will need lots of people to publicize our next meeting.  Everyone who signed up for “outreach” will hear from us, but we’ll need as many people as we can get.

 

Finally, we will need a large, easily accessible and centrally located site for the anticipated January meeting.  This has proven to be difficult.  Almost none of the libraries have sufficient space.  Some of the churches do, and they rent them out, but they have been really non-responsive to our inquiries.  Schools are difficult to get after hours.  So if you have a good contact at a venue near downtown or uptown that can hold at least 200 people, and if you can use that contact to try to get this venue problem off dead center, please let us know.

 

If you can help with any of these things, or if you want to be more involved in  any way, please e-mail your name and telephone number to: Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org.  Somebody will get back to you shortly.

 

Make Oakland Better Now! Management: 

 

So far, management of MOBN! has been pretty ad hoc.  Initial decisions were made by a self-selected “publicity committee,” whose decisions were partly substantive but primarily directed to getting as many people as possible to our August meeting.  Thereafter, the heads of the three committees and a few others who had been deeply involved in this process participated in conference calls to make some decisions about what should happen next. 

 

But it seems clear that we now need an executive board that is willing to do a little bit more than come to MOBN! meetings.  We anticipate that board members would consist of myself, the committee heads, and five to six others who are willing to commit to a conference call every two to four weeks, an executive board meeting every month or two, and taking on a little bit of extra work with respect to community outreach, communications and some of the nuts and bolts of organizing future meetings. 

 

We know that the people who volunteer for this kind of work are already busy.  But we also know this is really important work, and it is most apt to get done if we can get sufficiently broad involvement.  So please, this is a chance to make a difference.  Please send an e-mail to Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetternow.org telling me of your interest.  Include your name and telephone number(s), and someone will contact you..

 

Plans for the Make Oakland Better Now! Web Site

 

            Through the hard work of Karen Ivy and Steve Linden, our web site is being completely revamped.  When MOBN!’s web site 2.0 is released, you will find pages about the work of each of our committees, links to all kinds of useful city information, and a repository of city documents.  We’ll regularly update it with information about all kinds of upcoming city and city-related meetings, and news relevant to MOBN!’s three issues. 

 

In addition, the site will be interactive — we’re going to ask you and all visitors to the site to tell us what you love about our city and what you want to see changed.  You will have an opportunity to buy t-shirts and other MOBN! paraphernalia and to (ahem), make donations, since many of the things we are doing cost real money.  The Make Oakland Better Now! web site will be the main way we communicate with each other.  It should be up and running in the next two to three weeks — so watch for it. 

 

 

Public Safety:

 

            What has happened so far:  A small number of Public Safety Committee members have

 

• Undertaken a large amount of research concerning our new Police Chief, Anthony Batts, including his positions and accomplishments while with the City of Long Beach;
• Heard a presentation by, and met with, Chief Batts (and former Acting Chief Jordan) during Council Member Brunner’s monthly constituent meeting;
• Acquired a good working knowledge of the “Negotiated Settlement Agreement,” the recent Police Department Internal Affairs Division report, a fair amount of community policing data, Rand’s Measure Y report, the City Auditor’s Measure Y audit; and
• Reviewed FBI data concerning police department staffing levels nation- wide.

 

Of particular interest was Chief Batts’ recent presentation.  Directly below is Jim Blachman’s summary from that presentation and his brief meeting with the Chief afterwards.

 

Chief Batts’ presentation:

 

The Chief’s take on “roles and responsibilities”:

• The police Dept. is only one actor in improving Oakland
• Programs by themselves won’t solve the problems (e.g., stopping the “sideshow” groups attracted to Oakland each weekend)
• Improving public safety throughout Oakland requires involvement of the whole community:
  • Neighborhoods, families, schools
  • Businesses
  • Churches and civic organizations
  • Other government agencies

 

His “action plan”:

• Create a short-term plan based on “customer service” while building a longer term (3 – 5 year) strategic plan.
• The customer service plan will meet the expressed concerns of Oakland’s citizens (e.g., in Long Beach, the process identified response times needed to improve.)
• The long term plan deals with substantive and chronic issues
  • Dept. budgets, staffing and training
  • Policing strategy e.g.:
    • On-street drugs and Oakland’s role as N. Calif. Narcotics hub
    • Student safety, truancy and juvenile crime
    • Convict re-entry and management (the chief noted Oakland had a some success under programs instituted under Jerry Brown)
    • Community policing and community involvement

 

The chief’s comments as they relate to MOBN! Public Safety’s top issues

 

While he did not address all our listed top issues, he DID touch on many of our key points:

 

1. Department Strategy, priorities, resources, budgets & practices
   1. Strategy/goals/priorities  (See above – the Dept will create a strategic plan)
   2. Staff non-police activities w/ civilians (While chief in Long Beach, they shifted some paperwork chores in the Detectives unit from sworn officers to civilians)
   3. Deployment and policing methodology (will address in strategic plan) (note: Long Beach has success with curfew for minors and the chief wondered why Oakland hasn’t adopted this)
   4. Access to key infrastructure (e.g., no fingerprinting unit) (take advantage of  and share other law enforcement group’s resources)
   5. Real preparation for natural disaster (fire, e-quake)
2. Client Service and Community Relations
   1. Articulated strategy to improve relations in key constituencies (See above – the Dept will create a customer service strategy)
   2. Measure/report performance (activity in settlements of complaints, response times, customer satisfaction scores, etc.) (As part of their customer service plan, Long Beach measures and reports key department performance statistics)
   3. Improve transitional support for parolees and ex-cons (see above - the chief noted Oakland had a some success under programs instituted under Jerry Brown)

 

 

Jim introduced himself to Chief Batts and briefly explained Make Oakland Better Now’s plan to insert our policy positions/recommendations into the mayoral election. The Chief literally completed Jim’s sentence with the following words: “hold the elected officials accountable for putting the recommendations into action, I like that!”

 

Anthony Batts is poised, committed, energetic and a great “brand” for the city of Oakland. You can tell his career at the state/national  level depends on creating success in Oakland. He plans to live in the city, which is terrific.  And he’s counting on involvement of Oakland citizens.

 

            Want to meet Chief Batts yourself? There are a ton of opportunities coming up.  You can get information about the current opportunities to meet Chief Batts at Susan Mernit’s new site, Oakland Local, here. 

 

            What needs to happen next with public safety? 

 

The Public Safety Committee wants to obtain the broadest available number of informed views on the questions of what the City of Oakland should do to:

 

• Restore the confidence in the police department from the city’s citizens including all neighborhoods and across all demographics
• Implement a meaningful and workable public service approach to law enforcement
• Maximize utilization of non-sworn personnel
• Implement strategies for reducing and addressing citizen / police complaints to a point where police litigation costs are significantly reduced and the department can be relieved of the need for the Negotiated Settlement Agreement
• Improve transitional support for parolees and ex-cons, as well as oversight for those programs
• Maintain staffing at current authorized levels
• Assess the level of sworn and unsworn personnel necessary to meet community law enforcement expectations
• Create the political climate that will support bringing police staffing levels to a point that conforms with the assessment.

 

We have reached out to a number of current and former police and other city and county employees (including some at very high levels), community activists, “insiders” from the Allen v. City of Oakland case (the Riders case, which resulted in the Negotiated Settlement Agreement), as well as academics and long-time politically connected Oaklanders from a wide range of communities. We intend to ask them questions such as those listed above, as well as the questions “What should we be reading?” and  “Who has studied these questions before?”

 

As mentioned above, we need more committee members to help with some of the heavy lifting.  Again, you can tell us if you can help by e-mailing Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org.

 

            Public Works:

 

At our kick-off meeting, the Public Works Committee’s discussion elicited a huge number of possible areas of interest.  In order to narrow the scope, we undertook a survey, and the greatest interest seemed to be in  (a) streets (repair, signage, potholes), lighting and sidewalks; and (b) parks and recreation facility maintenance. 

 

The City Auditor issued a report in April recommending improvements to the Public Works function, and the Public Works Agency responded.  Here’s the problem:  the recommendations and the responsesare 577 pages long.  We need a team of perhaps 2 or 3 people to divide up the work of reviewing all of this, determine which of the 200 recommendations are relevant, which have been implemented, which have not, and what questions are raised as a result of this audit report. 

 

With respect to parks, the funding to city parks took an enormous hit as part of the recent budget process.  But we need to know exactly what that means, and be in a position to ask intelligent and forward-looking questions about how to improve things.  Specifically, we need 2 or 3 people to review relevant portions of the city budget and the documents that were generated concerning parks as part of the budget process, then advise the group as to what questions are  relevant.

 

So, we need 4 – 6 volunteers from the Public Works Committee to do some reading and analysis and make recommendations.  We will provide you with a hard copy of the City Auditor’s Public Works report if you are working on the streets, lighting and sidewalks part, and a copy of applicable budget sections if you are working on the parks and recreation facilities issue. Finally, this committee also needs a reporter – somebody able to add content to the web site letting everybody know what this committee is doing.  If you can help here, please e-mail Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetter.org with your name and number, and someone will contact you.

 

Transparency/Accountability/Budget (The “TAB” Committee)

 

This committee hit an unexpectedand unavoidable bump in the road when its initial leader was forced to step down because of pressing family issues.  However, I am happy to report that Preston Grant and Nathan Stalnaker have stepped up to form the leadership team.  And they have been very active.

 

As many of you may know, early this year the city spent some $175,000 to have PFM Group (led by former City Manager Robert Bobb) prepare a report on how to reorganize the Mayors’ office and the departments that report to the mayor. Some of the report’s recommendations are fairly general, and some are very specific to the current administration.   In a few instances, the administration responded by making personnel changes (although the report did not specifically recommend such changes).  In more instances, the administration did not respond.

 

It seems clear that by following some of the more specific, as yet unimplemented recommendations, the city could increase accountability, transparency and efficiency by an enormous amount.  So one of the things this committee can do quickly is distill this report down to a manageable list of action issues for the next adminstration.

 

This month, the City Auditor’s office released its contractor’s audit of the city’s personnel practices.  The committee needs to decide whether policy recommendations can be and/or should be distilled from this documentas well.

 

We also need 2 or 3 qualified people willing to parse the budget.  If you are willing to sit down with this ponderous (500+ page) document and be prepared to give the committee advice on what it means, please e-mail Oaklanders@MakeOaklandBetterNow.org with your name and telephone number, and someone will contact you.

 

Conclusion:  That’s the report for now.  Want to help us move things forward?  Leave your name and number via e-mail at Oaklanders@makeoaklandbetternow.org.