Vote No on the charter measure replacing the expiring Measure Z public safety and anti-violence program parcel tax.

We need 1,200 well-managed police officers. We need the equivalent of SF's Measure E to loosen pursuit rules, reduce police time spent filling out duplicative oversight reports, and spend a lot more on drones and GPS darts to minimize pursuits.

The replacement for the expiring Measure Z will not do any of that. It will result in fewer police.

I'm one of the signers of the election pamphlet rebuttal to the ballot measure which many voters signed, including me, thinking it would increase the number of police and revamp our 911 system.

“Argument:

Vote NO on Oakland’s decades-long plan to defund the police and REJECT this new parcel tax that decreases police funding, decreases accountability, and will result in even more crime.

In 2004, when the original public safety parcel tax (Measure Y) was proposed by the City as a temporary fix, Oakland was fully funding 739 officers. The parcel tax money was supposed to fund 63 additional officers, for a total of 803 promised officers. This ballot measure calls for minimum staffing of an “annual average” of 700 officers - 39 officers LESS than what the City was funding in 2004, and 103 officers less than what Oaklanders were promised.

In addition, there are so many loopholes and exceptions to this supposed “minimum” that we will probably be lucky to ever get 700 officers.

The original Measure Y parcel tax was $88.00 per single family home in 2004; it went up to $100 with Measure Z in 2014, and this proposal is now for an outrageous $198.00 per parcel - for the next nine years! Oaklanders have been paying more and getting less for years, and it is time to say NO MORE!

If Oakland public officials thought we desperately needed to renew Measure Z, they could have drafted a proposal themselves. But they didn’t. This proposal was actually put on the ballot by a secret cabal of Oakland elites, without any input from the public, specifically for the purpose of lowering the voting threshold necessary to get it passed.

This is deceptive, unethical, and a SCAM! Oakland desperately needs to properly fund 911 dispatchers, police staffing, and other necessary public safety services. But this proposal is just another expensive slush fund. Demand that Oakland officials put together a better proposal to ACTUALLY address the public safety crisis. Vote NO!"