Deadline Nears for Oakland Police
OAKLAND, Calif. (KCBS) Oakland city officials and police union leaders continued to meet late Monday night in a last minute effort to come to an agreement and prevent 80 officers from being laid off.
The cuts are scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. The Oakland City Council voted last month for the layoffs in an effort to help close a deficit of more than $31 million in the city's 2011 budget.
The major issue during negotiations: city officials want officers to pay 9 percent of their salaries into their pensions, the same figure as other unionized city workers.
The police union said it would agree to the concessions if the city guaranteed a three year moratorium on layoffs, something the city said was not possible.
Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts begun re-engineering the department this past weekend so that it can focus on its core functions, such as responding to 911 calls.
Police have released a list of crimes, including grand theft, burglary, vehicle collision, identity theft and vandalism that officers would not respond to in person if there were layoffs. Victims would have to report the crimes online.
Batts said many of the officers facing possible layoffs were on the front line last week trying to control protesters after former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Oscar Grant.
"They could have called in sick, they could have not shown up," Batts said. "They were spat upon, had rocks thrown at them, and they were professional and did their job."
Most of Monday's meetings have been held behind closed doors. The Oakland City Council is expected to hold a special closed-session meeting on Tuesday morning in an effort to come to some kind of resolution.
