Good morning and welcome to the Finance and Management Committee meeting of Tuesday, March 10th, 2026.

The time is now 9 30 a.m.

and this meeting may come to order.

Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda.

With us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative no later than 10 minutes after the start of this meeting or before the item is read into record.

Registering to speak via Zoom is now due 24 hours prior to the start of start of this meeting time.

This meeting came to order at 9 30 a.m.

and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after, making that time 9 40 a.m.

We'll now proceed with taking roll.

Council members Brown.

Present Councilmember Unger?

Here.

Councilmember Wong.

Present.

And Chair Ramachandran.

Present.

Thank you.

We have four members present.

Uh Chair, before we begin, do you have any announcements at this time?

No announcements.

We can go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you.

Starting off with item one approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on February 24, 2026, and there are no speakers on this item.

Is there a motion?

Move approval.

Second.

Thank you.

That was a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Unger to approve the draft minutes from the committee meeting on February 24th, 2026.

On roll council members Brown.

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

Wong?

Aye.

And Chair Ramachandran.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number one passes with four ayes to accept the draft minutes from February 4th, 2026.

Reading in item two, determination of scheduled bystanding committee items, and we have one speaker that signed up for this item.

Okay.

At this time we have no changes to the pending list that I'm aware of.

Okay.

Um is there a motion?

You have a you have a speaker.

Um councilmember comments request?

Okay.

Then to the speaker.

Okay.

Mrs.

Calling in the name that signed up for item number two, Mrs.

Sada Olawala.

Thank you.

All names have been called, Chair.

We just need a motion.

Okay.

Is there a motion?

Second.

Thank you.

That was a motion made by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Councilmember Wong to accept the determination of scheduled outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Council members Brown.

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

Wong?

Aye.

And Chair Ramachandranjan.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number two passes with four ayes to accept the pending list as is.

Item three.

Receive an informational report on measure Q.

One, why was extreme fiscal necessity declared without open discussion and what the time or sorry, what the timeline is for making changes to this practice.

Following the grand jury report, when can the biennial audit report be expected?

Three, what will the process be defining extreme fiscal necessity with measure Q and other stakeholders?

And we have a number of speakers on this item.

Thank you.

Councilmember Unger, anything you want to share before staff present?

No, I'm just uh eager to hear staff report.

Great.

Thank you to Director Bradley.

Good morning, everyone.

Brad Johnson, Director of Finance.

I will be providing an oral response to the questions asked by Councilmember Unger, and I'll be flipping back and forth between them as I as we move through.

So your first question was why is extreme fiscal necessity declared without open discussion?

What's the timeline for making changes to this practice?

This is related to grand jury finding number 2517 from the grand jury report, uh, which the city council added the extreme fiscal necessity clause to measure Q without open discussion public debate, and we actually disagreed with this finding with the grand jury.

So we both at the uh and our explanation was that as the ballot measure was put on by the council, we actually had an active and open discussion around the clause, and as it relates to the um enactment of this clause, we do have this at a council meeting where we have a conversation about it.

And actually, I make a pre- I've made a presentation to you for the last probably four declarations we've done where we have a conversation to talk about this.

This is always included in the packet in advance.

It is your prerogative as a council uh per the measure to declare or not declare the state of extreme fiscal necessity.

It's a recommendation that has come from staff and the office of the mayor in the production of your budget for the last four years, but it is ultimately your decision whether or not to declare it or not to declare it.

Should the council not declare it, we have to adopt a budget that complies with the strictures of those measures in full.

And traditionally, both uh neither the proposed budget nor the sets of amendments that come from council members uh tend to do the work that would be required to adopt a budget without that necessity declaration.

So if there's a desire for measure Q or any of the measures to be fully uh to not require a fiscal uh necessity declaration, we should have that conversation sort of in anticipation.

My office, uh my department is happy to do that with all of you in the preparations of your amendments.

Should the mayor's proposed budget not be in compliance with that at the front end.

And again, we do have to adopt uh we do have to present and adopt those findings.

There is always a staff report that explains our rationale why coming from us.

Uh and again, the decision is ultimately yours.

Your second question uh on the report, and apologize as I flip back and forth.

Uh following the grand jury report, what can the biannual audit report be expected?

So we have commissioned um, we do, I should say, audit measure queue as a component of the city's financial audit.

And we have gone through additional uh we've looked for additional contract services to do more detailed audits and presentations around from a fiscal perspective.

The city auditor's office, I'm not sure if the auditor is here, oh uh, is responsible for the routine audit per measure Q.

They have uh completed one audit, and we have had some city auditor Houston, if you want to speak to it yourself, the staff will respond to that audit as per RAI regarding it, and we will work to ensure that we are in compliance with the recommendations that are made by the city auditor through that normal process, and we'll continue to follow up on that as the city auditor does his duty to audit that measure on a routine basis.

And so there are two sort of or three sets of audits.

You there's your routine financial audit, in which case we have had a clean audit for the last uh many, many, many years, which includes measure Q uh led uh information.

There's a more detailed audit that we're gonna be looking at doing with on a financial side uh to maybe provide additional scrutiny and a little more scope around that as well.

That's strictly a financial audit, and then there is the independent audit conducted by your city auditor, which goes through your normal audit process per the measure, and the administration responds to it per the AI, that is jointly between the city administrator and the city auditor as to how we address any findings that he may have.

And I can I'm sorry, I don't remember the specific timing of our last audit.

I know we have we have just gone through one, I can remember doing it.

I don't remember the particular timing around it.

Uh, your final question what will be what will be the process for defining extreme fiscal necessity with measure Q and other stakeholders?

So we're in the process right now as we received your report at your, I think it was two committee meetings ago, which talked about compliance with the local measures.

We are in the process of trying to develop a plan to come into compliance with these local measures, measure Q and all the others.

That is a key desire of ours.

Uh the measure does not require you to come up with a definition.

However, as a component of the review of your consolidated fiscal policies uh and then the adoption of your prior measures, we've had a working definition and we're gonna look to formalize something in conjunction with the measure advocates.

I will be I will be clear as I was clear at your last committee meeting when we presented on what would be needed to come into compliance.

That definition and it would be the standard perspective from finance should not lock you out of being able to declare it.

We cannot adopt a definition that would not meet our current circumstances.

And I know there may be some disagreement to come about how severe extreme fiscal necessity should be.

I would note that your current framework, which is the framework that uh was developed by prior counsels.

I know we spoke with Councilmember McCallb's office about as well.

My predecessor and Roseman had detailed discussion uh was to cascade sort of three definitions of uh financial distress, an adverse financial condition, extreme fiscal necessity followed by a fiscal emergency to understand that financial distress is not all one thing, that there are gradations, and we had defined extreme fiscal necessity as sort of that second tier.

Um but I want to make sure whatever definitions we come up, we have clear and bright line distinctions between stream fiscal necessity and fiscal emergency, which is the one that um we have not declared.

We have not been in a space to declare and has much more severe financial consequences, and we're not at that stage, certainly now.

Um, and we were not at in prior budget cycles.

So we're looking to develop your consolidated fiscal policy and bring back large amounts of changes in the fall.

And so that would be our timeline for looking at definitions.

Should we not be able to agree with definitions to the advocates?

We will as staff provide you our best advice.

I'm happy to take any questions you have around that.

Thank you.

Um my preference is to go to public comment first.

Um, but Councilman, since you brought this item, please.

Okay.

Um, can we call in the public speakers?

Calling in the names that signed up for item number three in no particular order.

You can come up to the podium and please state your name for the record.

If you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified.

David Boatwright, Asado Olabala, Kevin Daly, Mark Barish, Naomi Schiff.

I see you're seating time to Brooke Levin and Brooke Levin.

You'll have a total of three minutes.

Since you have time seated to you.

Good morning, Chair Ramashandra, members of the committee, city administration, and finance director.

Brooke Levin, former public works director, co-chair of measure Q, the group that brought this measure to the voters.

After the city council approved it, we worked very closely on it.

First of all, I want to go to um Mr.

Johnson's first point.

When the city council put this item, this ballot measure on the ballot.

I was at the meeting with Mr.

Bliss, my co-chair.

At that meeting, at the 11th hour after all speakers had spoken, extreme fiscal necessity provision that's in the measure was added by council member Lynette Gibson McElhaney.

There was absolutely zero time for any public speaking at that point.

The council was going to vote on it.

It was the last possible day the council could vote to put a measure on the ballot for that March 2020 election.

That is what we're referring to in the grant that that's what the grand jury referred to in the report, that there was no public discussion on it.

Secondly, there's never been a definition of extreme fiscal necessity when it was adopted.

There was nothing in the consolidated fiscal policy at that time, and there was no other document in any other ballot measure that also had this reference of what the definition of extreme fiscal necessity was.

It wasn't until June of 2023 when the council got their packet on a Friday for a Monday morning budget meeting to adopt their council resolution that that definition showed up.

We had never seen it until that Friday when the budget came out in a supplemental report.

I just want to be really clear about that.

We had then in September of 24, there was a finance committee meeting.

We asked to work on this definition.

The committee said yes, and it directed the city administrator, Mr.

Johnson, to work with us.

It took until April 15th, 2025, for us to have the first meeting, and now the meetings have been derailed into this roadmap for fiscal recovery, which is also a good thing, but we still have not got a definition or criteria for extreme fiscal necessity.

On the other items, the biennial audit report is overdue.

We're into the sixth year of measure queue, and we've only had one two-year report.

And I will just say, in defense of the city auditor, his staff has been cut and he has not been fully funded.

He needs to be fully funded, even if some of the money comes out of measure queue to do this two-year audit every two years.

That is an accountability measure.

Every ballot measure should have an accountability measure.

They have an oversight commission, which is the PRAC, and the PRAC chair is here today.

You need to have this accountability.

How can the voters trust a ballot measure?

We have a crazy ballot measure on this ballot coming up for public safety and lots of other things with no accountability.

An oversight commission that has no jurisdiction over anything except to review a report as given to them.

And I know that was a citizen initiative, quote unquote.

But it's really important to know that we have worked really hard to get this half billion dollars of money into the city.

Thank you.

Kevin Gowley, predominantly, I just agree with Brooke.

Let's get things moving forward.

The auditor definitely needs funding too wherever that money comes from looking forward to research.

Looking forward to resolving some of the problems.

Thanks.

Good morning.

Good morning all.

Thank you to the chair for bringing this matter to uh to the public.

And thank you for all the work you do.

Um I want to echo.

Oh, by the way, my name is Mark Barish, I serve as chair of PRAC, and I want to echo the points that Brooke made.

She said them so eloquently that I don't think I can repeat them quite as well.

But really, I just want to draw a couple points just to just to emphasize them, which is to date, there still is no very clear definition of what extreme fiscal necessity is, how long it lasts, how it's removed, what are the criteria.

We don't know, and we've been trying to get those answers for a long time, and indeed work on that together with you.

So that's one.

The other one that's very important is in the grand jury report, indeed.

There never really was a public discussion about it, uh, going all the way back to the inception of the ballot, as Brooke laid out the exact timeline.

And as it relates to the biennial audit, it's true, the auditor's office seems to be underfunded for this purpose, but uh six years is way too long to have only one audit.

So we are we are really overdue.

Um in my remaining time, I want to bring up a related matter, which is as chair of PRAC.

I have to say that the commissioners and and I are struggling to stay on top of what's happening because of this dearth of reporting.

And it's not just the topics of reporting that we're talking about now.

Owing to the short staffing in public works, the number of um uh measure queue reports has gone from two years ago monthly reports from 10 to 7 to 5 expected this year.

So we with that limited reporting, which is really half as much as it was just two years ago, it's incredibly difficult to know precisely what's going on, and I feel a little bit hung out here because I have a personal obligation as well as a statutory one to provide oversight on the spending of measure Q.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna take a little time to talk about uh PRAC.

They have too much authority.

Y'all jump all over the police commission because of their uh abuse overreach.

PRAC makes decisions that never come to council about trees.

Last meeting I went to was some time ago.

I stopped going to their meetings.

Uh they were discussing putting a fence around the perimeter of the garden for the staff to protect their cause.

I leave the meeting and the fence is already up.

So uh y'all need to look at they're the ones that made a decision and came up with a plan for Lake Merit's uh vendors how to deal with them.

That wasn't a that wasn't their uh authority to do that, should have came from you.

So going back to this, uh don't go jump all over one group of people and you let some people uh do whatever they want with these committees, especially the privacy commission.

Um financial management around, and who and let me say this who is going to speak for the part of measure Q that has to do with the homeless community?

There's no voice for them around this.

Uh these people are talking about porks, but measure Q also encompasses homelessness, and there's nobody representing their best interests as it relates to measure Q.

The Alameda County grand jury identified poor stewardship of Measure Q funds.

Although funds were designed for improvements, audits revealed the city did not have a baseline to measure effectiveness, resulting in funds being inconsistently used for POLCs and homelessness services.

Okay?

And there's also some issues around underspending in actions, uh, lack of oversight, uh, failed performance, equity concerns related, and uh the wrong use of of the funds.

David Butride District 4, I have one simple question, and that is any money ever taken out of measures to be used for items in the general purpose fund.

I've heard people make those comments.

I've seen things that indicate that it might be happening.

And you say we've we've not uh spent any of the um money in these funds or done anything in the in the measures as a result of this emergency that that we have with the budget, but it sure sounds like there's some uh money being moved around in these uh from these measures, it's inappropriate.

Chair that concludes all speakers on this item.

Thank you.

Um I really appreciate all the work that PRAC and those who helped organize measure Q have put into trying to not only get it on the ballot but maintain some level of oversight and accountability.

And a couple of weeks ago in this committee, we did hear a report on a potential roadmap to compliance with these different measures.

Obviously, there are more expedited steps that could be taken rather than a five-year gap.

And I think as we begin and embark on this year's uh mid-cycle budget process, hopefully we will be able to make sure that more measure Q funding um and and as well as the MOEs are directed to that regard.

Last year, our council budget team, which is actually all the members of this committee, tried our best to reinstate some of that funding, for example, by reinstating about half of the tree services division um and some related services in the park.

We have a long way to go, um, uh very much admittedly.

Um, but but again, we are, I think, very as council members, I think we're very, very committed to seeing what we can do to make sure that the money voters have entrusted us with and the additional money from our general fund that should be going into these measures based on what voters passed, is in fact allocated as so.

Um I had one question for Director Johnson.

So I was here on council when some of the earlier discussions on the definitions came up, and it was a little all over the place, and I believe you met with some members of PRAC and this and the coalition.

Um what is the status and do you have future meetings planned?

Absolutely.

And so I and I want to thank actually deputy administrator Monica Davis, who's not can't couldn't be here today for doing uh the heavy lifting on convening everyone around that.

So the desire to put in definitions was originally uh brought by a member of council.

There is a resolution in your budget resolution where we did provide sort of an interim definition of these things.

We haven't formalized them in your CFP, but the the initial definitions came from the finance department at a at the request of a council member.

We are still gonna be actively meeting in advance of our fall fiscal policy update with the with the measure advocates for measure Q and all the other measures around what the definitions should look like.

Um and again, that's an active conversation that I look forward to continuing to have with the measure advocates so that we can present something to you in your fiscal policy update in the fall.

So that's an active set segment of work.

Um people who are involved in that right now are sort of knee deep in budget preparation, if that makes sense right now.

So once we sort of come on the other side of that space, we'll be looking to re-engage with all the measure advocates on definitions, what they might look like, along with other updates we may need to our CFP.

Thank you.

And of course, regardless of definitions, I do strongly believe it's the will of this current council to put as much money back in as allocated, but in the meantime, um very much look forward to well, sorry, I have a question.

If this is if these definitions are coming in the fall, what would be what would we be considering in the mid-cycle budget?

So the measures themselves do not require you to have a definition in order to declare one.

That is an element of how these are set up.

They did not contemplate in their inception that you define the item.

They require us to justify it, which we do in the staff report that accompanies them, but they do not require a definition.

You have working definitions that finance is adopted for that has provided for you, and you have adopted in the past.

You could choose to use those, but should you decide you do not wish to use those definitions, you do not have to.

We do not have to include them in a resolution.

We could strike them from a resolution.

It would not actually impact your ability to either pass or not pass a declaration of extreme fiscal necessity.

Conceptually, you've already adopted one for the biennial as well.

So conceptually, we may operate under the paradigm of the one you adopted with your biennial budget.

However, it's been our practice for transparency and clarity to bring back a resolution and report with every mid-cycle so that it's seen again in the public and it's really clear what's being done by the body at its action.

Is it at all possible to expedite the discussion of definitions in our CFP, even if it's not the whole CFP that we adopt part of it with these definitions before we vote on the mid-cycle in June?

I I'm happy to have those conversations on the front end with the advocates.

I would say I have to be circumspect a little circumspect about it.

We have a real capacity issue in terms of doing that work prior to getting the budget through, which is why we had a fall timeline for the CFP in general.

Um with the sort of breadth of advocates and that same measure, that same language, multiple measures, coming to a consensus agreement on what that definition should be may prove difficult.

Um if this body wishes, what I can commit to you is getting a definition that is the best expertise of my department as to what it should look like and a commitment to meet with them in advance around that and any feedback or conversation we may have, I can commit to that.

I can't commit to necessarily us getting to consensus before then, and I'm hoping, but I hope that we can.

Um so as a capacity issue, I'm happy to have a meeting this some initial meetings this spring uh to try to continue to talk through this in advance of the adoption of your mid-cycle budget.

Um, but I do think fall is actually a more reasonable timeline for us to get to a really solid work product.

Thank you.

Yeah, I would greatly appreciate if if the CFP could be bifurcated to discuss these definitions ahead of time.

If a consensus can be made, all the better as far as transparency in our trust with voters goes that we're complying with things.

And I know there's different perspectives on to the extent that measure Q requires a definition, but I think regardless of that debate, it would be in my belief the best practice for transparency to have those definitions written down and agreed upon and voted on by council before we pass the budget, if at all possible.

Um councilmember Ungar.

Oh, come councilmember Brown Unger Wong.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Um thanks, thank you, Councilmember Unger, for bringing um, you know, requesting this report, and just always grateful to um everyone who shows up to kind of speak on behalf of this.

I know that um during the when we were doing the budget last year, there was great consistency in bringing this to our attention, especially as you know, new council members.

Um, and so I'm I guess I'm really interested in question number two around the biannual audit.

Um, in reviewing the audit that took place in 2024, um, there were a handful of um, I think upwards of 13 to 15 recommendations that were asked of the administration.

Um, I guess I'm I am curious when the next audit will occur, and then also what is the status of some of the detailed recommendations, um, especially around uh how like how the funds are actually being utilized.

Good morning.

Michael Houston, the city auditor.

Um as far as the status of the um biannual audit of measure Q, um it's in our current work plan for 25-26.

We plan to launch it before um the end of the fiscal year.

It's taken quite some time to get the contract executed for that one.

So but we do plan to um to launch that very soon.

As far as the status of the recommendations, um we're gonna have our RFU report very soon, which kind of summarizes the statuses of all the outstanding audit recommendations.

Okay, don't want to.

We're still uh confirming those statuses, but um we'll have a complete report very soon.

Okay, so I guess first question, um, we're using an external vendor to um move forward with the the audit.

Was that the same?

Do we do the same for the 2024 one?

No, the the first one we did in-house, but we've really just fallen behind on all of our recurring audits.

So measure M, measure N, Measure Q, Measure D, measure D, the other measure D, measure C.

Um, we're gonna have to um rely on the outside contractor to help us catch up.

I see.

Okay.

And then um for the um follow-up on the recommendations.

Um, I know you said very soon.

Um could we expect that before we uh I guess pass our mid-cycle budget?

Um what would be your answer?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So that recomm the recommendation follow-up report that um is that we're gonna publish um very soon, probably next as soon as next week.

That's as of the period through December 2025.

Okay.

Um and then yeah, because we do it semi-annually, right?

One for the period ended December and the other for the period ended June.

Um it will summarize all this the measure, all the outstanding audit recommendations, but including the measure q outstanding recommendations.

I will say um I came in a little late, but I think that the last audit recommendation in Measure Q was around um the required um financial reporting for the ballot measures, which um yeah, the state requires that.

And I believe based on the preliminary status reports from the administration that that one might be implemented because they've executed a contract.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you.

Council Member.

Thank you, Rob.

Okay.

Uh thanks.

Um thank you for putting this on the agenda as well.

Um I I have a couple of questions.

I'm reading the grand jury report and a couple of the um questionable expenses that the advocates have had concerns with include included that um measure q had been used to pay for three police officers' salaries, um high level human services employee, including the director that was charged to measure Q.

Um, there were capital expenses associated with uh Union Point Park that were charged to measure Q, and then uh there were also it looks like uh 6.4 positions in the city administrator's office at a cost of 3.9 million that were also uh possibly billed to measure Q.

I'm just uh wondering since you all have to develop a response to the grand jury report, and I haven't had the chance to review it, but what um uh what is the commentary on how Measure Q was used to fund these types of positions?

Absolutely.

So I'm yeah, so I I can I'm not the person to speak to all the items in the grand jury report, so I apologize.

I would note that we do we did provide a response as per the grand jury's policy.

There is a formalized response.

Um I believe, and I'll defer to the city administrator, that it was presented to council before we delivered it to the grand jury.

Um I can attempt to go through and restate what's in that.

Um I will note just to the sort of the breadth of your questions.

Uh we on a compliance basis do from a finance perspective, do try try to at the budgetary stage, make sure that to the best of our knowledge, everything that we're allocating resources for is compliant with the measures.

The language of the measures is a little bit complicated, and that's actually spent a fair amount of time actually going through them to make sure that we're doing them properly.

They're not super simple.

Uh I would note on for instance on the homelessness side, the city administrator's office is actually the entity that administers a fair amount of our programming related to homelessness.

So it's not necessarily that that's wrong would come out of the city administrator's office as a department because they do the that's who does the work on large components.

Um the uh just and that I just picking that as a particular example.

I could see if we want to have a if you have more specific questions, again, I'm trying to point to the specific uh audit finding so I could uh read it back to you, but I'm I'm happy to have an offline conversation with you on that, and or make sure that uh whoever the subject matter expert is to that particular finding is there to get you the answers you need, council member.

Um when we developed the response of the grand jury, it was an interdepartmental process, and that didn't all come through finances again.

I may not be the best person to respond to all of them.

Okay, and and uh my other question is just around it, looks like the commission of homelessness is or on homelessness, excuse me, is supposed to uh publish an annual report on measure q.

Has that ever been done or uh I don't know if you're the person to ask or who who do we have somebody from the city administrator's office that uh sits with that commission, or do they just meet independent of any sort of administrative support uh through the chair to Councilmember Wong when you say they who is they understand?

The uh commission on homelessness yes, um so we that uh commission is staffed by two of our teams that are on the encampment management team.

Okay.

Um so yes, you have two staff members that support that committee.

Okay.

And uh do we know if they've ever published that annual report on measure Q?

Uh and I apologize, I don't have that answer right now.

We can certainly uh bring that back.

Okay.

Councilmember, I will note that as of the grand jury space, the finding this is finding 2526, which was that Oakland's homeless commission has not met its measure Q oversight mandated, including the preparation of annual report as required by ordinance number 13584 in order to updating the duties of the commission.

And I would note that we agreed with that finding at that time, so I'm not sure if anything has happened between now and then, but I can say at the time of the publication with the grant of the grand report, that was the administration's response.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for the report.

Um, when we declare extreme fiscal necessity, obviously it affects a lot of different ballot measures.

Do we sort of treat them all equally?

Do they all get um implicated in the same way, or do we sort of pick and choose more from one than the other?

So your uh adoption resolutions do have separate resolve clauses for each one of the measures to make it really clear, and your staff report typically outlines sort of by how much, which is not strictly required in all of them, but we try to be transparent and say, you know, it's this amount, it's you know, we're waiving it vis-a-vis.

We'll give you an example.

The measure Q amount is this far below, which is what we're we try to say, and then we may say that the you know the charter requirements regarding the city auditor staffing is this much below or one position or two position.

So we try to articulate specifically what the variance is to that, and in near every budget document, there is a page actually explaining how the compliance, how how far off are we into waiving the maintenance of effort, what the scope is, but I believe our our practice on legislation is to do them all specifically.

Should you not be out of uh need declare a fiscal uh declaration of fiscal emergency and be in compliance with one of the measures, we could omit it from the particular resolution that does them, but we do try to do one resolution so it's really clear because it's often across multiple measures that we are not just doing this in one particular service space that it's happening for uh the re for the reasons indicated and adopted by council across multiple spaces.

Okay.

And then um more of a statement, just building on what Chair Ramatran said at the outset.

Obviously, we pass the budget and we make these decisions, but we're always building off of a budget that you have created with with the mayor's office.

And so I just want to um put out there that it is the the hope of myself and and I believe some of my colleagues that we work back towards um fulfilling the the voter mandates, and I understand that we may not be able to do it all at once, but that is uh sort of our broad my my broad um direction is to try and uh get back towards fulfilling them as best we can.

And per the report that uh the city administrator approved that went to you to meet committees ago, I think that is the intention of the organization.

Great.

Okay, colleagues, to the author, would you like this to be filed or go to council or if you have I think we can just receive and file it here in committee?

Okay, second.

Okay, sorry, uh through the chair.

Was that a motion made by Councilmember Unger?

Okay, sorry, thank you.

That was a motion made by Councilmember Unger, seconded by Councilmember Brown to receive and file this informational report in committee on roll.

Council members Brown.

Aye.

Unger.

I won.

Aye.

And Chair Ramachandran.

I thank you.

Item number three passes with four eyes to receive and file this informational report in committee.

I have sat in many meetings where members of the police department come to these meetings.

We have the chief sitting here, and he has a lot of work to do.

So I'm gonna ask again, any time the police department is in schedule.

Could we put that as a number one item?

Uh I'm just embarrassed that the chief has the city all this time with the volume of work that he has to do.

We are about to call that item right now.

We can call the next item then.

Thank you.

Calling in item number four, receive an informational report regarding OPD overtime.

And we have four speakers that signed up for this item.

Good morning, Chair and members of the committee.

Laraja Marshall, fiscal services division manager for the Yalkham Police Department.

Before you is the fiscal year 2025 through 20 states overtime report covering the data through the second quarter, December 31st, 2025.

At the start of the fiscal year, council approved an adopted budget of 33.6 million, reflecting a 11.1 million or 25% reduction compared to the previous fiscal year for 2024-2025.

As of today's date, the department is authorized for 678 sworn positions with 615 positions currently filled, leaving 63 vacancies.

To better align overtime spending with budget expectations, in November 2024, the department took proactive measures and drastically reduced internal overtime by 20%, which carried over into the current fiscal year, which equal which equals a target of 8.4 million per quarter.

At the end of the second quarter, actual overtime spending total 6.2 million, 2.2 million below the quarterly target, which includes reimbursable overtime and salary savings.

Year to date, overtime is projected at 50.4 million, approximately 16.9 over the budget allocation.

After factoring in 7.5 million in third-party reimbursables, which these funds are deposited into the general purpose fund and are not returning to the department's operating budget.

And the 17.3 million in salary savings, the department is currently projected to end the fiscal year with overtime under spend of approximately 8 million.

However, it is important to note that the salary costs associated with acting sworn positions do reduce the salary savings and are not reflected in these projections.

These costs are estimated at approximately 2 million, which would adjust the projected overtime spin to about 6 million.

Additionally, the report includes supporting tables that display key overtime drivers, budget allocation versus actual expenditures, the tracking system improvements in timelines, and details on the top divisions contributing to overspending.

This concludes my portion, and I'm going to turn it over to Chief Beer.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chair.

Good morning, Council.

Um so just for a summary from July 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 2025.

Within just four months, the OPD's overtime budget was cut from 44.6 million to 22.8 million.

That's a 51% reduction, including a 20% cut implemented by me, which required careful adjustments to the department's operations and deployment of resources to maintain the reduction of crime that we've been seeing for the last three years.

So for the original breakdown, the budget of 44.6 million, um, that was actually reduced by nearly two million to a new budget of 42.8 million.

And as stated before in November of 2024, as I was the acting chief of police, I proactively reduced it by 20 percent.

That was all discretionary overtime was shut down.

After that, our budget was cut again by 20 million, ending up at 22.8 million.

So that's when we went from 44.6 million to 22.8 million.

The current overtime budget is 33.6 million, which is more than 11 million dollars or 25 percent less than the amount allocated at the beginning of the previous fiscal year.

So with that, I'm open for any questions.

Thank you, colleagues.

If you're open to it, I'd like to move to public comment first.

Calling in the names that signed up to speak on item number four, in no particular order.

You can come up to the podium and state your name for the record.

If you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified.

David Boltwright, Asada Olabala, Millie Cleveland, and Kevin Daly.

Hi, Kevin Daly.

Uh I appreciate the report, and I'm disappointed by the amount uh the number of years, the number of quarters over and over again we have police overtime.

One of the biggest single officers, I think the biggest single officer who's collected overtime was Lieutenant Dolan, who made nearly half a million in overtime is reported by Oakland side.

He's responsible for crash data and accident reports.

In 2021, one way of solving the problem, at least some of the overtime, is moving this reporting responsibility over to Oak Dot.

This was suggested in 2021 by the reimagining public safety task force.

The council actually supported that, specifically recommendation 59, which implicitly includes that suggestion.

If you move the accident reporting over to Oak Dot, I know they don't have as much of a problem with their overtime.

You also can put more sworn officers on the beat where they belong.

Accident reporting, police tend to report what code violations are done.

So for example, last week there was a death on San Leandro Street in front of the Oakland Coliseum.

Speed limit is 35 miles an hour there.

It's a deadly speed.

If the driver was traveling at the legal speed, that was an extreme risk of death for the pedestrian.

If the person had been traveling at 25 miles an hour, it'd be less of a risk of death.

Oak Dot is able to see this, understand what the real cause of the accident is and not limit themselves to violence.

David Boatride, District 4.

Three questions.

And this has been talked about before.

Why is overtime reimbursement go to the general purpose fund versus the OPD's budget?

I think that would help reduce the overtime problem a little bit.

And they were only in the 80s not long ago.

It's a curiosity.

I would like to hear more comments on.

And there's nothing in the overtime report.

It's very good overtime report.

It's more more detailed than I remember in the past, but it doesn't say how many of these special events that the police are having to deal with, because that takes their time away from working as city employees in their primary jobs.

Thank you.

This is particularly alarming when Oaklandside reports that one officer received $490,000 in overtime, and the city can't find records detailing what he did.

The general employee unions authored a detailed research paper entitled Smarter Public Safety.

Significant cost savings that could directly affect staffing and overtime costs are contained in the report.

There are at least 38 sworn officer positions that could be civilianized in internal affairs, IT, public information, training, recruitment, background checks, and performance auditing that were approved by city council for transition to civilianized staff.

Why hasn't the city administrator moved on this?

And why are there no council members asking for status reports?

The city auditor has recommended creating a better system for monitoring and approving officer over time.

Why hasn't the city administrator moved on any of these recommendations?

Negotiations with OPOA are occurring right now, and these recommendations should be proposals on the table.

Clearly, this council could benefit from hearing from other voices and not limit your information from the very department that has created the problem.

Thank you, Chief.

For the past decade.

I'm sorry, that's already been said.

I'm not going to repeat.

Um the department lacks a full computerized system, relying on paper-based tracking, which leads to inefficiency and managing overtime and controlling overtime, causing us to spend more on overtime.

Since 2019, 51% of added overtime hours have been attributed to shifts extensions that officers can initiate without prior management approval.

And this came up on Google, Chief, so it could be wrong.

And uh so correct me if that's that's not right.

Uh so um, I gotta go answer the phone.

Uh that's my son.

Thank you.

Oh, Chief, and please take on a consideration out with every police officers are here for reports to prioritize that prioritize their time.

So they can get back to the busy their business of protecting us.

Thank you for your service.

Oh, no, these ladies too, they're busy working.

All right.

Thank you for your comments, Chair.

That concludes all speakers on this item.

Thank you.

Um I have I'll let my colleagues go first, but I do have a number of questions.

Um Council Member Brown.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, so thank you for the detailed report.

Um, I have a handful of questions.

I guess my first one um just for clarity went in uh on the table on page three when it says special enforcement.

Uh uh, does that also mean uh special events?

Excellent.

Yes, so I should sorry.

Yeah, that's a great question, and that was brought up by one of the public comments.

So for the special resource section or special operations division, they're two separately.

The special operations division includes anything from side show enforcement, um, parades, celebrations that we do not reimburse for, these all add up.

And then not even taking in account major events like the NBA All-Star weekend where the police are called in to do traffic control, extra enforcement, high visibility, security for other events related to that that are not special events.

You're talking about like FIFA World Cup, just previously back in, you know, we just had the Super Bowl, and that was all out of OPD's budget.

We were not reimbursed for that.

So you're looking at multiple different events for OPDs requested to actually staff and be the primary role driver or organizer for a lot of these events.

Some parades are third-party reimbursed, sometimes we're not fully reimbursed for that.

We have an event that's coming up pretty soon this week that there's a lot of city partnership and collaboration with.

We just had a meeting this morning.

That's going to be a lot of OPD overtime.

A big portion of that event is going to be you know repaid by third party.

However, there's other resources that will drain the OPD's budget, not just on straight time, but also on overtime where we're actually contributing uh officers out of our budget to sustain that.

So those are just a few.

And it was one of the things that was brought up here.

So the root cause obviously is lack of staffing, but the ex uh the actually continued burden on the police department where we're actually taking on more events.

Then if you actually look at now you got the Oakland Unified School District, their police department has been since um defunded.

We've taken all of their calls and all the burden for the Oakland Unified School District.

We haven't been reimbursed from them, or staffing hasn't increased there, as well as the Open Uh Park Rangers, they have also been defunded in years past, and we've taken over their responsibilities.

So that's just a few uh of the additional burdens that the police department takes on.

That's not actually part of the budget that does drain some of our resources.

Excellent, thank you.

And so that actually leads me to my next question, and I guess it's more of a um like being forward thinking.

So with the um with the um dollars that we were able to um allocate for um police academies and bringing on new officers, what is your um maybe what how would you estimate um potentially that overtime would go down as we're bringing on new officers and and you know, I guess at what point do you think that we would start to see a decline in overtime?

Well, unfortunately, now we're playing catch-up, right?

We've had academies canceled in 2025, or one academy at least canceled in 2025, and as we're making the rush, it's obviously very competitive to bring new police officers online, and we're not gonna lower our standards.

So it's very difficult recruiting uh nationwide, and it's something that not just OPDs uh actually experiencing.

But you know, prior to today's meeting, I took a look at myself, right?

This is very concerning to me.

Um I I live here, I've raised my family here, these are my tax dollars as well.

So for that question, it's not just as a resident, but also as the police chief and a member of the police department, it puts the community as well as the officers at risk because the women and men of this department are working hard every day in many cases on their days off and double shifts.

I I if we continue the path where we're going right now, which has improved, we actually have officers that want to come back to OPD more than we do that are leaving.

Uh the attrition rate is slightly lowered.

However, we are in that sweet spot now where there's a there's an opportunity for many members of the department to retire.

Thankfully, they're committed and they're remaining past their retirement age, but that is a concern.

So if we factor in that piece and offsetting more more recently, the officers coming back to include the you know, next academy that graduates in May, and then the additional academies to follow, it's going to take us multiple years to get back up where we're at.

So if you look back at 2009, we had 800 police officers, and our population was 390,000.

Now look at it this year, our population is 443,000.

That's 53,000 more people, multiple different police agencies that were working here within this jurisdiction that we've taken on.

That's a 23% reduction in staff because we have 185 less officers, but yet a 13.5 increase in the population.

So you're talking about a population increase and the reduction of other law enforcement agencies that we've now burdened, and we have to actually deploy resources.

So when you're looking at the population increasing four times the size of Emoryville, almost the same size as the city of Alameda, and we're not gaining their police departments.

In fact, we're losing our own officers.

Our staffing levels have been reduced by 23%.

You have to rely on overtime.

But that does concern me.

As soon as I took over in December of 2025, I immediately sat down with Director Suttle as well as other executive staff.

And like I said, I even saw it as the assistant chief, and I tried to proactively when I was the acting chief, reduce it by 20%.

We looked at it, and then we did see some irregularities, and we started to act on that as well.

But overall, the root cause is we're not properly staffed, and this is nothing new to the police department.

We need to see city departments across the city are experiencing the same thing.

They're doing more with less.

I mean, even the city auditor who did an audit for the Oakland Police Department in 2019 followed up in 21 and 22, and we did not disagree with any of their recommendations and some of the points that were brought up in public comment.

We do need a tracking system.

Um and we are going to have the first installation of that tracking system in the June 30th of this year, we're working on the contracts.

But it's going to come in phases, and it won't actually be fully implemented until December 2027.

And that tracking system is a necessity, so we could properly supervise who's doing overtime, where they're doing overtime, and how they're doing overtime, not just fiscally being responsible, but just for the officer wellness piece and to make sure that they're being getting the adequate rest.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Um, and I think you answered my next question, which has to do with the digital um overtime uh being um a new digital system for tracking and that that would first be implemented June 30th of 2026.

Yes, council member.

That's the first phase, but however, we will not get to the full product for that platform till December of 2027.

Um can you explain that a little bit more?

So it's uh as far as the technology piece, the first uh iteration of it comes online June 30th.

Did you want to?

Oh, sorry.

I'm gonna turn it over to the expert right here.

Good morning, everyone, Deputy Director Keanu Saddle.

So OPD is currently working with City IT on a new scheduling system known as telestaff.

The contract for that system is anticipated to be complete by June 30th of this year.

Once the contract is complete, then OPD IT will continue to work with city ITD in order to implement um the overtime tracking system piece.

But as Chief Beer said, it's gonna be in phases.

So the initial phase has to do with scheduling, and then phase two, that's when the uh department is gonna work with ITD to implement the overtime tracking.

But again, the overtime tracking cannot be implemented initially because of other operational needs that have to occur.

Correct.

Okay.

Because it's it's telestaff is a scheduling system or an assignment managing system.

And so we are working with the vendor to be able to add a module that can track overtime, but that module is going to have to interface with the city's oracle system.

So it does take time.

I see.

Well, first off, is that information accurate?

And then also how given that it's going to take until December of 2027 to actually implement this online scheduling tool for efficiency.

What is our plan to ensure that we are controlling overtime?

No, that's a great question.

Do you mind saying Mr.

if I can go first?

It's a great question.

And it again going back to the and December into January, that was one of my concerns, especially once I was briefed that the system wasn't going to be online for some time.

So immediately established a high low list, which is published uh every other week, which all the commanders can look at and identifies the people within the department professional and sworn staff that are getting paid the lease, but more importantly, those that are getting paid the most.

So that way we can identify them right off the bat.

There has been a previous special order that was put in place, and then before the Oakland side article actually was released, we were discussing strategies to address certain concerns, which are my concerns again.

I'm a taxpayer here.

And our concerns that we'd already identified.

So there is a policy in place.

There was a previous special order.

We met with the city administrat uh city auditor.

I can't speak to the details of the investigation, but I can tell you an investigation has been initiated uh regards to the information that was in the Oakland side article.

We were already analyzing that prior to the article being released.

It was a concern of mine right off the bat.

In addition to that, by mid-February, uh and we'd already been working on an order directly from me to kind of seal everything up to make sure there's more accountability for the commanders to ensure that everybody is being audited uh biweekly from the officer, sergeant, lieutenant, all the ways up to the chain, and there's more onus on it now by the command staff to follow up on that to be able to back brief me.

Okay.

Um, and then I guess maybe my last comment.

Um, I know a public speaker mentioned um how we should be inquiring around you know how how uh I think previous councils, even my colleagues here, we've all um inquired about um just some positions that um you know necessarily doesn't need to be done by sworn officers.

Um but I know that um administrator um deputy administrator Davis is gonna is working on our policy directives that we passed during the budget cycle, and so hopefully we'll be getting a report on kind of the status of um some of those key positions on whether or not um like what would be the timeline to transition some of those some of those roles.

Um but I'm not sure if you have an awareness into um or an update on any of that.

So we've been in the process of uh transferring sworn duties over to professional staff within the police department or members of other departments within the department within the city itself.

Um I will say that we're gonna have to keep analyzing those on a case-by-case basis because what we're learning now is other departments want to give them back because they're more efficient while they're in signed of the police department.

Those conversations are going right now for say the vehicle abatement unit.

Um we are committed to um profession making more positions as a professional staff, and most currently, thankfully, uh through commitment with the community and some of our business partners were bringing back the cadet program, which is also a non-swarm uh program, which I'll be presenting later on tonight at the public safety council, which will be nine positions to free up sworn officers, whether that has to do with certain type of report taking, uh answering calls for service, um case management, assisting with criminal investigations, follow-up phone calls.

So uh I think when it comes to like a report out with regards to transitioning certain sworn staff over, we just have to be really specific about it because some of those actual positions that we had reimagined are under discussion as to coming back under the umbrella of the police department.

Excellent.

Um thank you so much, um Chief.

Really appreciate your leadership.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Okay, um I will pass it on, but just on that last point that Councilmember Brown made about the civilian staff.

So I think one of the questions I know she was referring to, but I really have is not about civilianization of the new roles, which is an ongoing conversation, and I know that your department is working on it, but there were five positions that in our budget that were that are civilian roles.

Um the fleet compliance coordinator, um, police intake technicians, and no, those are total of five positions.

It was four FTE intake tax and one FTE fleet compliance coordinator.

That in the budget, we restored funding for hiring, and those positions were civilian but hadn't yet been hired.

And our goal in this was being able to put those five sworn officers who we were told at the time were not on any kind of modified duty back to patrol by being able to restore funding for this.

So my question, I'm not sure it's for you or for um Miss Marshall, but um what is the status of those five?

Because five is better than nothing as far as five is something to be back out on the streets for patrol rather than doing a desk job that's coded as civilian work.

Okay, I'm gonna turn it over to Director Suttle, who's the uh director for Bureau of Services that oversees our professional staff, and then I can follow up for any additional questions in regards to the SWORN.

Thank you.

So for the intake technician, uh that's assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau.

So interviews occurred, and from those interviews, three people were selected and are currently in the background process, and the department is going to work with HRM to host another recruitment for that particular position because the eligible list has been exhausted.

So again, three of the five positions uh individuals are in the background process right now.

As far as the fleet coordinator, um, OPD is working with city HRM on the specific the job specifications for that particular position.

So that is with uh city HR right now to revise the job specs.

Thank you.

That's great.

Uh and the person that is occupying that position right now, it actually is someone on modified duty.

So it's not a full duty police officer that could work the streets right now.

Um, but until the job specifications are revised and we're able to begin that recruitment, the position is being filled by a sworn personnel on modified duty.

Okay, thank you.

Um also that position actually, I don't know why I don't think the microphone likes to be there.

We go.

That position was actually staffed by a uh professional staff, non-sworn member.

Um unfortunately, we recruited him to go into the academy.

He's from Oakland, he was working for the city of Oakland.

So when that position opened up, uh the officer that's on light duty is not deployable to the into the field, um, not to get into specifics, but his injuries are severe enough that he cannot really be used anywhere else.

So one of the other rules I had when I came back was to just reduce the every uh the number on admin leave, which we reduced over 50 percent, and then bring people back that were off on medical with certain restrictions.

So the position he fills is tailor-made.

Uh he has the knowledge of how to deploy the vehicles and where they need to go, just citywide, not just downtown within the police department.

So it actually brought a police officer back to work that would have been otherwise sitting at home, but that position was filled until we recruited the uh the professional staff member to join the police academy.

Thank you for the update.

Um I will pass to my colleagues in a second, but you had mentioned the point, which was one of my questions about those reduced on administrative leave by 50 percent.

So the number in the report of those on medical, military, and admin leave is as of writing the report is 83.

How many are currently on admin leave as of now and um how many were you able to get off since you began the role?

So the numbers fluid.

I I gave a pre uh a presentation last week.

Initially it was around 38 people on admin leave.

Um I was able to reduce that down to 16.

Currently it's at 18.

Thank you.

And out of, I think 38 to 16 slash 18 is a great number.

Um, what was done in such a short period of time?

Because it'd be great to keep that moving.

Well, investigations were continuing, um, as well as I changed the method of how it was assessed.

Uh the deputy chief of internal affairs and I sat down, we went line by line.

We looked at each case on its merit.

And if we were able to bring back people to work and it didn't pose a risk to the city or the police department, then we brought them back to work under in some cases under additional supervision, or they were assigned uh duties within the police department, or they were returned full duty.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Um council member Ungar then long.

Thank you.

Um so I want to dig into the tracking issue a little bit more.

I I don't have any problem with um spending money on overtime as long as we can prove that it's being used to to make the city safer.

And 2027 is is a long ways out.

You are already using telestaff, correctly?

We are.

The telestaff version we're using is really antiquated and not um it's not up to speed for what we are.

It's not the industry standard, it's also a challenge uh when you talk about such a large department where we're tracking different assignments and reporting pieces, so we have to get to a point where we're able to track people real time and understand where they're being being deployed and the you know the resources so how it affects the the department the as well as the individual officers as well.

And so um these officers are getting paid, even though telestaff and oracle are not communicating, so they're they are somehow putting in a report or a time card or something for the overtime hours they work.

Why is it not possible with that time card or however they're doing it to also say what they did during that period of time?

So that's the part.

So since I took over, that's why I created the special order to reinforce the original departmental general order regards to overtime, but also the reporting piece that when the officer works, whether the overtime slip itself gets lost, they still have to email their immediate supervisor which shift they worked and how many hours they worked.

Then the couple with that, the additional overtime and a follow-up piece is the new order that I sent out to reinforce that and to put the high and low list so we can track it uh every other week, and then it's now the responsibility of the commanders up to the captains and deputy chiefs, depending on the rank to ensure that they're auditing those until we can get that telestaff online.

This again is not just uh an issue for the police department.

I've spoke to other directors within the city.

Um overtime tracking uh has been a problem for years since nothing new.

Uh it seems to you know become highlighted more every couple of years for certain different reasons.

But speaking with the fire chief and other directors, the reliance on overtime is um across the board, and it's specifically when you get into certain uh departments where your expertise uh could be very um limited as to who could work those events, and then when you have a broad range of opportunities, whether it's to work uh patrol as a watch commander or you're mandated to work for a side show, so there is mandatory assignments for other things as well.

So it's some of the overtime is not even the discretionary for the person working it.

Um we're trying to get to a point right now.

I mean, I think it's uh important to understand.

Um we should be, you know, we had a staffing study, it says we should have 877 officers just to maintain basic services of what we're doing right now.

That's answering calls for service.

We have less than 500 operational.

If you want to do better and we provide the best possible police services to what this community deserves, you should have about 1,200 officers.

The fact that we continue to drive crime down for the last three years with the resources we do have is a testament to the women men that work every day at the police department and to also our other city departments that are partnering with us, but it's also leveraging technology.

So although technology will help us reduce that overtime, it's not a replacement for the human being showing up to your door.

But ultimately, to go back to your question, it's more supervision.

We have to, until the technology gets online, we have to hold our commanders responsible for ensuring the supervisors are monitoring and properly supervising the officers all the ways from the bottom to the top.

So again, I I don't have a problem with with the overtime.

I just want to know how it's used.

So if we have what we can't have is an officer who we say, oh, we know he worked a hundred hours of overtime, but we don't know what he did during that time.

And so it sounds like you have a system now which is cumbersome and email-based and hard to track, but are we at a place now where we would be able to know what every overtime hour was spent doing?

For each officer under the uh commander, yes.

Um it's still difficult, it's very laborious.

There's going to be mistakes because there's the human uh human element in there.

Um I I'm looking forward to the time we actually have that platform in place because there's going to be mistakes.

Um but previous to even with when before I took over as the interim chief, Chief Mitchell was able to identify uh uh what he thought was another concern, and what they did is they went back and dissected it all, and there wasn't an issue with that one particular member.

However, it's going to take that effort on the command staff level.

It's gonna take the chiefs and myself to make sure the captains are getting very into weeds with it.

Um I comfortable with it.

No, I like I said, I I live here.

Um I'm raising my kids here.

I'm a taxpayer, so it affects me.

Uh I want to have the best systems online for our department to be successful so we can properly track it.

Um I confident that there's going to be more oversight and more actual digging down into to know where the officers are working, where the overtime is coming from.

Yes.

Yeah.

I again, I I mean, I I understand that you know we're waiting on the on the new telestaff module, and and I but I am heartened to hear that at least now, even though it's cumbersome, even though it's difficult, even though it's a pain in the butt, you would be able to tell us what each overtime hour was spent doing.

Because presumably when an officer is assigned to overtime, we know why we're assigning that officer to that overtime.

So we should be able to then retrospectively say why we assign that officer.

Absolutely.

And then so for the portions that you're talking about are really more specific to special events, right?

So you're talking about parades, um sporting events, uh other type of like the discretionary events.

The discretionary overtime is only allowed now when we're starting to see a spike in crime in a particular area.

What we're doing for now, the overtime that's automatically approved is if patrol is not fully staffed, right?

Then those positions are going to be authorized right off the bat because you need officers on the beats to answer the calls for service.

Those are easily easily tracked.

Where the um where the confusion can come in is when you you have a lack, uh just use an example.

You have a lack of a supervisor.

So you have to pull another sergeant from another squad that goes to another part of the city who's going to report to another lieutenant and he's gonna work in that area.

And then the very next day he ends up working side show, or then he ends up working for the vice.

So you have different commanders.

So that's makes it what's very difficult to track.

The new platform will help us track that.

Um, but now it's one at at the order that I gave out in February is that they have to submit an email to their supervisor so their supervisors can track what they're working on overtime.

And in addition, the finance office is actually highlighting which officers are the highest paid and which are the lowest, and then that's triggers the captain to make sure that they can report to the deputy chief or ultimately to me as to what hours they're working.

Well, I appreciate all you're doing to try and track this during this time while we're waiting for the new uh system to come in.

So thank you for all of that headache.

Thank you, council member.

Uh thank you through the chair.

Um thanks for this report.

And uh I I absolutely hear what you're saying on the understaffing crisis.

You know that I've been uh working as a partner with you on this issue because I just think it it's absolutely a crisis.

Nonetheless, you know, things like that Oakland side report um are concerning.

And what one thing I just want to understand because the way that this report is written, I I thought was a little bit confusing.

So just to clarify this statement, um so this paragraph says despite this progress, year-to-date overtime expenditures through QT Q2, excuse me, exceeded the fiscal year budget by 16.9 million.

After accounting for 10.6 million dollars in identified savings, the department's net overtime spending is projected to result in an underspend of $8 million.

I just want to confirm that what we're talking about is that because there was $33 million budgeted for overtime that we're projected by the end of the year to actually um meet around $25 million if that's an $8 million underspend, but that's driven really less by not the fact that we're actually doing less overtime, but the fact that there's uh salary savings and the reimbursements.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

So I think one of the community members are public comment actually highlighted it.

So the third party overtime, we get reimbursed, but not the police department.

That money goes to the general purpose fund, which isn't accounted for for our budget.

million if that's an eight million underspend but that's driven really less by not the fact that we're actually doing less overtime but the fact that there's uh salary savings and the reimbursements is that correct that's correct so I think one of the community members their public comment actually highlighted it so the third party overtime we get reimbursed but not the police department that money goes to the general purpose fund which isn't accounted for for our budget and then in addition what's also not accounted that we're accounting for is the salary savings the lack of officers that so you're actually saving money by not having police officers are paying for them on overtime and unfortunately this has been a formula that's been in place since I started back in 1997 and the city saves money by being under staff because you're not paying for a full fully burdened police officer with with benefits you're paying for overtime so what we're doing is we're reporting back out to you on the salary savings per the officers that are not filled but plus also the third party overtime that does not go back to our budget.

Right.

Okay that's that's helpful um I will say that I was reading a 2021 city auditor report and it was discussing just the progress on uh addressing uh the overtime recommendation that were that they were made and it was even back in 2020 I think was the original time frame for this IT implementation that is now set to be complete by 2027 um and I know there's tact technological challenges all over the city not just OPD this is our whole city could modernize but um I do want assurances from both the city administrator and and you yourself that um that that timeline is not going to be further delayed that uh this telestaff uh implementation is going to be uh is going to be here uh completed and implemented by 2027 per the report yes council members so the initial audit was in 2019 with follow-ups in 21 and 22 um again it's gonna the the first phase comes online June 30th of this year but all the other phases uh we can't guarantee that because it the it's reliant on city ITD as well to do their piece as well and and to pay for the the the rest of the phases to be to be upgraded so right perhaps city administrator can you comment on that on the city IT part uh through the chair to councilong um so yes uh we are committed to try to make sure that we can um achieve the deliverable of this project have it implemented by the timeline again this is a a technological improvement I think the one variable that we have is the fact that the implementation in the Oracle it it in and of itself is a significant challenge so in your budget process no surprises but there probably will be a request for some improvements on the Oracle side but I don't know what at all the vendor would have to reconstruct to fit into this antiquated financial system that we have here in the city of Oakland unfortunately so um so commitment to the fact that yes we're gonna charge and just try to make sure we can get this thing implemented uh in a timely manner but that's one variable that I have to be honest with y'all that's something to to keep in mind that may cause some delay or or or not okay sounds good we'll we'll we'll keep on checking in on this and then you know as you know I was trying to get the scheduled uh to public safety um and I acquiesce because I recognize you know OPD's time is valuable um but one thing that I want to see built into these reports and I want to actually see a supplemental is this is addressing it mostly from a finance and management point of view um I I also have concerns around the amount of overtime that is done from a public safety point of view especially actually for officers we know that uh once a certain level of overtime is achieved it actually increases the likelihood of use of complaints um the International Association of Chiefs of police actually have these thresholds where basically officers you you know this already but just for the public's awareness officers should not be doing more than 16 hours in a 24 hour period um they shouldn't be doing more than 60 hours per week because it really beyond that um enormous risks accrue for the officers who are doing this level of uh extreme overtime so I do want to have a supplemental report that um uh actually has the number of per set personnel that are exceeding those thresholds uh due to overtime and I I would I think it's important that we have that on an ongoing basis and see if we're starting to drive that number uh down in terms of um personnel that are again exceeding these dangerous thresholds so with that I'll make a motion to accept the informational report with the the supplemental information if they're receiving it are you receiving and filing in committee as is typically done for for this uh yes that's right receiving and filing it and then um also for the supplemental report and then for that to be included on ongoing basis since this is a regular report.

Counsel, are you referring to this the next report to have the information?

I I would like it actually for this report as it comes to as it's filed and then sent to full full council.

If it's file, if it's received and file as it's done for this, it doesn't go to full council.

But if you want extra information, A, which I have done in the past, I've asked for it in the next report that comes to this committee, or in an email or in a public memo.

Okay.

Why don't we?

Because I don't want to have yet another discussion on this.

Uh we have it, you said it very via a public memo, Chair.

To the city administrator, is that possible?

Uh through the chair, can you be more specific about what the ask is?

Just so I'm I'm tracking.

Yeah, I I would like to see a supplemental report um going forward that also includes uh basically the number of officers there that are exceeding these thresholds that are set by uh the International Association of Chiefs of Police, where uh essentially officers should not be working uh the general guideline being no more than 16 hours in a 24 hour period and no more than 60 hours per week.

So I'd like to know when are due to overtime how many officers are exceeding those thresholds.

Would it be possible that we follow our own departmental general order, which could be more restrictive?

And that is fine if you actually have a more restrictive general order order, and then let's go with that.

Because the general orders are already set in place, uh whether it's more restricted or not.

Right now, at the top of my head, I can't remember, but it's already agreed upon.

Um it's in the departmental general order.

Okay.

And in through through the chair to council wong, uh, is what I've also heard is just an informational memo that can be shared about the implementation.

Here's what you know, I guess pertinent information that would be helpful for this body to just stay informed about where we are with the tracking of overtime.

Is that yeah, that sounds good.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a couple of follow-up questions.

Um as far as the number goes, it seems like 14,000 has been spent in Q1 and Q2, which is a little less than half of the 33.83,000 um allocated for this fiscal year.

So does that mean we're projected to be under budget um on overtime this year?

No, council member.

Um, I mean, we're we're less, um, but I can't commit to that either.

Uh I mean just to give you an example, if we have a civil unrest incident and there's a protest, all of that overtime is not budgeted either.

So I mean it really depends on the state of the city, the state of the country.

Um although I've canceled all non-discretionary overtime, we still have to maintain the negotiated settlement agreement.

So there's going to be overtime that's going to come up with related to use of force investigations, internal affairs investigations, um, meeting um standards that are that are posed upon us by the courts, but are also the industry standard we should be doing anyways.

So uh it's not just um understaffed on the professional side but or the sworn side, but we're also understaffed on the professional side.

So whether that's public records requests, uh everything else that comes into play, those things are not budgeted.

So I as far as a forecast operationally, it's going to be very difficult because I don't know what the future has in store for us.

But I do know there's special events coming up just in that alone, but I'll turn it over to Director Sutton.

So to answer your question, based on current projected spending and then factoring in salary savings and reimbursable overtime, yes, we are projected to under spend by eight million dollars.

But as Chief Beer said you you can't guarantee it that is based on uh current projections.

Thank you.

Um and Chief, you just mentioned that you've canceled discretionary overtime.

Okay, great.

Um, so that means if it's not a mandatory situation like a call out for lots of for several officers because of a homicide has been called, or or those those type of situations, if it's just someone that would like to extend their time, that's not possible anymore.

That's not possible.

So one of the different like give you an example, um, case reduction in in CID.

So officers cannot just arbitrarily start working overtime and close out cases on their own without having approval through the chain of command.

Um we cannot run violence suppression operations unless there's really a vetting all the ways up through the top, and in some cases, I actually reach out to the city administrator before we deploy resources.

We look at the actual data and where the complaints from the community are coming from, and thankfully we have had some um funding to address human trafficking, for instance, or $700,000 that's broken down to two years for $350,000 a year.

That is managed and um and analyzed by multiple different groups, but that's an additional uh that that doesn't need to be um that that's not I would say discretionary, that's actually driven by the area captain as well as the community.

But when you're looking at um, say um robbery suppression, uh again, unless it's the captain can't deploy units on overtime unless that's approved through the the chief as well as the city administrator, and they have to justify as to why um what would not be again would be to your point if we ended up arresting someone that's wanted for a series of robberies, that they'll have to require a call out.

Um so investigators would come or a homicide, those would create overtime for investigators to respond.

Also critical incidents.

So if officers in the field respond to a homicide and it's like an hour from the end of their shift, they're not just gonna say, hey, it's midnight tonight, I'm clocking out, I'm gone.

You know, they're ext they're expected to extend their shift and finish the call for service, but it's only for critical incidents.

Okay, thank you.

Um just two more questions.

Um I think you did explain this, but are there any caps on overtime, a certain number of hours, or is this something that will be implemented in a new system?

So at the end of the year, or at the at the end of each pay period, you can't work above a certain number of hours overtime.

So the departmental general order does state that you have to have a rest period.

So as long as you're adhering to the rest period um and the department of general order, you can work the overtime.

That's going to cap it naturally, just you cannot just work 20 hours straight, three days in a row.

Now, I know that's one of the scenarios that was brought up, and I can't talk about the investigation, but there are nuances there that are not discussed.

Um, where when you look when you look deeper into certain things, you can see why that could happen, whether someone's on vacation and they come back in to do backfill.

And that's again, not just something that's unique to OPD, that's for a lot of other departments within the city.

So that is why sometimes it could appear that there's no cap.

Um, but you know, during the for certain things, again, I can't speak for specific uh cases, but that's where the vetting piece comes out and the over oversight, and if there is an issue or an allegation, then that's what the investigations will actually dissect.

Thank you.

And the very last question I have raised this in previous overtime reports that have come to finance, but it's the answers just haven't been clear.

Um it it's pretty clear when it comes to overtime spending on ceasefire, on in certain um uh OPD districts, all of that, but there's some that still confuse me, like the overtime for training.

Is that not something that's already budgeted in to the cost of academies or other related things?

It's is consistent and it's not the biggest amount of overtime spent, but it seems like one that could be under that could be controlled.

So for training, it's not just the police academies.

Training could also be your four-hour qualifications, your patrol procedures, or um any other type of uh required event.

I have canceled and they had and has been previously canceled by the city administrator's office that uh we're not attend any training unless it's mandatory or and absolutely required.

But in the past, um you would have to if you say you work dog watch and um you have to do your your four-hour call, then you kind of have to either backfill for your four-hour call and be paid the overtime piece.

Or sorry, qualifications.

I'm just using as an example.

Um, or if you need to, training sometimes has to utilize uh because we're not fully staffed in the academy staff itself, so you have to bring other instructors in for vehicle operations, um DT defensive tactics, uh, even I was a prior instructor myself for uh missing persons and uh some sex crime stuff.

Um so although my overtime sometimes uh my when I was a lieutenant and sergeant doing that, I it was typically done on straight time.

Other instructors have to come in and it's paid for on overtime because the academy, just like the rest of the police department is not fully staffed, to include the in-service training staff.

So sometimes they have to bring other because there's only two people that are in the in-service training for the entire department.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Um great.

So there's a motion on the floor to receive and file.

And is there a second?

Okay.

Thank you through the chair to council member Wong.

Just for clarification, this is a motion to receive and file this informational report with the request to staff to provide additional information on the number of personnel that are exceeding the specific thresholds due to overtime in the next quarterly report.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, with that motion made by councilmember Wong, second by councilmember Brown to receive and file this informational report with the request to staff to bring forth additional information and for the next quarterly report on roll, council members Brown.

Aye.

Unger.

Aye.

Wong?

Aye, and Chair Rama Chandranjan.

Aye.

Thank you.

Item number four passes with four eyes to receive and file this informational report in committee.

Moving on to open forum, calling in the names that signed up to speak.

In no particular order, you can come up to the podium, state your name for the record, or raise your hand on Zoom to be easily identified.

Mrs.

Sado Olabala, David Boatwright, and Kevin Daly.

Okay.

Related to this overtime.

I am tired of repeatedly having the police department come and do a report.

You have some work to do.

Your work is how do I budget for unforeseen circumstances related to not only the police department, but any department for unplanned spending.

Reserve budgeting.

Because there are going to be occasions where you're going to have overtime not budgeted by the police department, and that was brought up.

How do you create the system?

You can't keep coming here with the police department giving you a report.

It is your responsibility.

How do we create?

And we have to have a system that says once you have a budget, no matter what it's called, you can't go over that budget without following certain procedures.

So how are you able to spend 490 uh thousand dollars all the time for one officer with somebody not interceding to say this has to stop?

Thank you for your comments, Ms.

Olavala.

David Boatwright, District 4.

I'll uh say initially that uh I'm not against spending on the homeless, but it would be very helpful for the city to provide a report detailing where the hundreds of millions of dollars on the homeless has been spent by year and by spending category, i.e., services to the homeless housing cleanup movement and whatever else there is to determine what the city can do to more effectively fund the homeless and make progress toward its housing objectives and not go backward.

The other item is um if this new parcel tax passes in June, it would also be helpful to understand how the finance department allocates funds to the objectives listed in the tax petition without any meaningful guidance in the petition other than five percent on administrative costs.

That's important because the city is taking a hundred percent of the authority for filling out what goes where, and I think the citizenry needs to know.

Thank you for your comments, Mr.

Boltwright at this time, Chair.

All names have been called.

Thank you.

This meetings adjourned.