Oakland has some painful decisions to make as it faces a $200 million fiscal cliff.
The city's embattled mayor outlined her plan for filling that gap earlier this month while vowing to prevent cuts to public safety and critical services. But now the city council is being told it may need to cut an additional $63 million.
A special budget council meeting is scheduled for Friday.
"While our deficit is significant, our commitment to our communities, our small businesses, our residents here in Oakland is strong," City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas said.
In a social media post, Bas laid out two options for balancing the city's budget. One option involves the mayor's original proposed budget with amendments. That proposal aims to protect public safety and critical services from any cuts. However, it would also include details of additional cuts if the city can't finalize the sale of its portion of the Coliseum by Sept. 30.
"That allows us to be fiscally responsible," Bas said. "Secondly, option number two, that budget does not assume money from this Coliseum land sale, so that budget is more dramatic in terms of the reductions."
The second option leaves out any funds from a Coliseum sale. Instead, it calls for $63 million in additional cuts. Those cuts would impact several city departments, including parks, libraries and police staffing, including freezing police academies.
Those are cuts the police union says would be downright dangerous.
"Without incoming academy, there's no way that we can fulfill the staffing that needs to patrol the streets of Oakland and makes it very dangerous and unsafe for the citizens of this city," Oakland Police Officers Association President Huy Nguyen said.
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Several fire stations would also be browned out, a potential cut the firefighters' union explained would be catastrophic.
"We're at a tipping point where we are almost unable to meet the volume of work we have with our current resources," International Association of Firefighters Local 55 President Zac Unger said. "Should we start closing fire houses or reduce our resources by any amount, that would be catastrophic for the safety of the citizens of Oakland and also for our members."
In a meeting Wednesday, as the council looks to move forward with the sale of the Coliseum, Ray Bobbitt, co-founder of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, said they remain committed to redeveloping the area.
"There is an opportunity for us to create jobs, to create something new, to create opportunity for the most impacted communities in our city," Bobbit said. "We're very much supportive of it and hope that you will vote for it."
