Oakland Police Department Struggles Under Financial Constraints
OAKLAND (KCBS) - Oakland residents passed a ballot measure on Tuesday that keeps the police department from having to layoff more officers.
Measure BB, which was a fix for Measure Y, also known as the Violence Prevention and Public Safety Act of 2004, allows the city to resume collecting $20 million a year for public safety through established property taxes.
"We will not be laying off the 122 police officers that we would have to have done if BB did not pass," said Oakland City Council President Jane Brunner.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
But the city will not be rehiring the 80 police officers that were laid off earlier this year.
"As great as the passage of Measure BB was, there's essentially no general fund funding in Measure BB," said Oakland City Administrator Dan Lindheim. "The measures that didn't pass, Measure X and Measure W, which did have general fund funding, didn't pass."
Brunner and Lindheim said they are both open to creative suggestions of how to fund police officers, including the possibility of using redevelopment money.
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