Oakland Council President Bas To Hold Old-Media-Only Meetup On Budget Vote In Downtown Oakland

Now that California has opened up, the Oakland City Council thinks it can go back to its old pre-Pandemic ways of staging press conference events for dying form of media no one watches except a small handful of Oaklanders. In the process, they’re dumping the online-based, full-access, rooms that are accessible to anyone, and especially the disabled and the elderly. In a “make your own media” era friendlier to BIPOC voices and eyeballs, the Oakland City Council is sadly obsessed with feeding old white media. Council President Nikki Fortunado Bas can’t blame this one on Mayor Schaaf – they’re two peas in a pod, here.

Council President Bas To Discuss Outcome of Historic Budget Vote Tomorrow in Downtown Oakland

WHEN: Today, Thursday, June 24, 4:00 p.m. PST

WHERE: Breonna Taylor Mural on 15th Street at the intersection of Broadway, Telegraph Avenue and 15th Street in Downtown Oakland

WHO:

Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas + District 2 Representative
Councilmember Carroll Fife, District 3 Representative
Other speakers representing Oakland labor, community-serving, and faith-based organizations

WHAT: After City Council’s Thursday, June 24th 10:30 a.m. Special Budget Meeting concludes tomorrow, Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas will discuss the outcomes of the meeting. At this meeting, Council is scheduled to discuss and vote on Bas’ updated budget amendments.

Historically, Oakland has funded four police academies over each 2-year budget cycle. Mayor Schaaf’s 2021-2023 budget proposal increased this standard allocation to six police academies. Bas’ budget redirects the extra funding from Schaaf’s two additional academies, instead, investing $17.4 million in the Department of Violence Prevention, and effectively doubling their budget (and quadrupling the City’s General Purpose Fund contribution to the department) and expanding the funding needed to effectively stand up MACRO — Oakland’s alternative civilian crisis response program in the Fire Department — through which three mobile response teams will respond to non-violent, non-criminal 911 calls for mental and behavioral health incidents in East Oakland in Year 1 and expand to six teams citywide in Year 2.

Council President Bas’ budget team is composed of Councilmembers Fife (District 3), Kalb (District 1), and Gallo (District 5).

If the final budget is not approved tomorrow June 24th, Council will have a final meeting and vote on Tuesday, June 29th at 1:30pm. Council must adopt a balanced, final 2-year spending plan by Wednesday, June 30.

View Council President Bas’ updates and community messages at @Nikki4Oakland on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Post based on press release sent to state-of-the-art Zennie62Media, Inc.