In an open letter to Oakland residents, Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) firmly stated what he believes should be the focus of the City budget: core services of police, fire department, parks, libraries, streets, sewers, and sidewalks.

“I am urging residents to continue demanding that a priority be placed on Core Services from your city officials. And I urge my colleagues on the Council to act now on the budget,” he writes.

De La Fuente references the city’s budget deficit of $15.26 million dollars for fiscal year 2009-10 and $32.72 million dollars for fiscal year 2010-2011, writing that, “The City budget doesn’t have the “luxury” of carrying debt into the next fiscal year.”

He also refers to budget decisions made during a Feb. 16 city council meeting as, “…only temporary band-aids and not real solutions to the crisis at hand.”

Those budget decisions included the sale of City owned properties as well as staff layoffs in city departments such as Information Technology, Finance and Management, the Fire Department and Human Services.

De La Fuente writes that his proposed staff cuts are to eliminate, “…six legislative analysts to the council office, five positions in the city attorney’s office, and six positions in the mayor’s office. In addition, we need to mandate that City agencies operate within their budgets. This includes the Police Department, Department of Information Technology, and the Mayor’s office which is currently over budget by $260,000.”

Other pending budget decisions that De La Fuente states he will not support include, “…placing special taxes on the ballot for public safety, utility consumption and a temporary, quarter-cent sales tax increase.”

The letter continues: “I was frustrated that the majority of my colleagues decided that we will wait until May to make the challenging decisions that could help stop the bleeding right now. The fact is that we are not efficient, and the impact of this crisis is not going away. Putting off these cuts now means there will be more people laid off from key departments in the city. A combination of substantial waste being ignored throughout various City agencies along with a drop in revenues means we need to cut many of the non-Core Service that are currently in our budget, its that simple.

I have been pleading with my colleagues on the council to realize the urgency of this crisis, and I am again urging you to join me as I push them to stop delaying critical decisions that impact Oakland’s immediate and long-term fiscal health.”

City council's next meeting is scheduled for March 16.