Oakland passes its budget by declaring a fiscal emergency

Oakland
City Council Meeting
June 12, 2026

TL;DR

• The council passed Oakland's 2026-27 budget on a 6-2 vote, keeping basic services funded without new taxes.
• To balance it, the council declared a fiscal emergency and set aside several voter-approved rules, like the 700-officer police minimum and Democracy Dollars. The companion vote was 7-1, with Councilmember Gallo against.
• The council moved up $50 million in Measure U housing bonds to fund affordable housing this year.
• The council did not add a police-oversight investigator that one member proposed. It ordered twice-yearly reports on shifting police jobs to civilians.
• Senior centers will be funded four days a week, not five. The budget adds $200,000 for senior wellness programs.

What happened

1. The council passed Oakland's 2026-27 budget, 6-2
   1. Oakland's City Council passed the city's 2026-27 budget on a 6-2 vote. This was a midcycle update, a midpoint revision to the city's two-year spending plan. The plan keeps basic services funded, including police, fire, street cleaning, homelessness response, and parks.
   2. The budget team said it added no new general-fund jobs and used one-time money only for one-time costs. Its biggest single new item puts $1 million toward the city's long-term pension and retiree costs. Councilmembers Noel Gallo and Charlene Wang voted no. Wang said she voted no because she did not get a response on why her traffic-safety amendments were left out.
   3. What this means for you: This sets the city's spending for the coming year without new taxes. The plan funds current services rather than adding new programs or staff.
2. To balance it, the council declared a fiscal emergency and waived several voter-approved rules
   1. Passing the budget took a second, linked vote. In it, the council declared a fiscal emergency that lets the city skip several required spending levels for one year. Chief among them is the voter-set minimum of 700 police officers, known as Measure NN.
   2. The city is also setting aside Democracy Dollars, Oakland's voter-approved public financing for political campaigns. It is suspending a minimum staffing level for the city's ethics commission. The budget paused a step that calls for advisory input before spending soda-tax money. And it tapped the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help close the gap.
   3. The council dropped an earlier plan to waive parks funding rules (Measure Q), after its amendments brought parks spending back into compliance. This resolution passed 7-1. Councilmember Gallo voted no, citing six union contracts the city still must settle and about 838 jobs funded last year that were never filled.
   4. What this means for you: These rules normally guarantee minimum spending on police staffing, public campaign financing, and the ethics commission. For one year, the city can spend below those floors and use housing-trust money to balance its budget. The changes do not repeal the measures; they pause them for 2026-27.
3. $50 million in housing-bond money moves up to fund affordable housing now
   1. The council pulled forward $50 million in voter-approved housing-bond money to spend on affordable housing this year. The money comes from Measure U, the city's housing bond. The council moved up a portion that was planned for a later round.
   2. Housing developers and nonprofits backed the move. They said Oakland has ready-to-build projects waiting and that local money helps unlock state and private funding.
   3. What this means for you: This puts $50 million toward affordable housing this year, using bond money the city had planned to spend later. It does not raise taxes; the bonds were already approved by voters.
4. The council left police-oversight jobs unfunded and ordered new reports
   1. Many speakers urged the council to fund police oversight, but the budget did not add the staff they asked for. They called for fully funding the Office of the Inspector General and restoring investigators at the Community Police Review Agency. They also wanted the council to lift a hiring freeze on the Police Commission.
   2. Several warned that federal court oversight of the Oakland Police Department could end as early as September. Councilmember Carroll Fife proposed adding back one investigator at the review agency. Council President Kevin Jenkins objected to paying for an ongoing job with one-time money, so the council left it out.
   3. Instead, the council adopted a directive on the police department. It orders reports at least twice a year on shifting police jobs to civilians. The reports must also cover moving internal-affairs investigations to the review agency. Fife voted for the budget after members committed to examine police spending.
   4. What this means for you: These agencies investigate complaints against Oakland police, and the budget keeps them below their voter-set staffing. The council added regular reporting on civilianizing police jobs, but not the positions residents requested.
5. Senior centers funded four days a week, with $200,000 added for senior wellness
   1. Oakland's senior centers will stay open four days a week, not the five that members asked for. The mayor's budget funds four days, and the council did not add the fifth day. Staff said going to five days would cost just under $800,000.
   2. The council shifted $200,000 of soda-tax money to senior wellness programs and senior centers. It also set aside $50,000 for safe drinking water at Oakland public schools, down from $250,000 in an earlier draft. Dozens of seniors and senior groups asked the council to fund five days without cutting other senior services.
   3. What this means for you: If you use an Oakland senior center, it will be open four days a week this year, not five. The budget adds $200,000 for senior wellness programs but leaves the fifth day unfunded.

What residents brought up

• Senior centers and the ASSETS program. Seniors filled much of the hearing, asking the council to open senior centers five days a week, not four. Many warned that the mayor's budget pays for longer hours partly by cutting senior-aide jobs. They said the cut removes 10 part-time positions in a program called ASSETS, worth $174,245. Speakers from groups like SOS Meals on Wheels, Mercy Brown Bag, and the Senior Services Coalition also spoke. They urged the council not to fund the centers by cutting other senior services.
• City worker pay. Members of Local 21 and SEIU 1021 told the council that Oakland pays too little to fill its jobs. They said workers got no cost-of-living raise last year while facing higher costs for healthcare and pensions. A union officer said 40% of members earn less than a comfortable Oakland wage and 1 in 10 live below the poverty line. Several tied the city's vacancies and flat pay to police spending. They pointed to $31 million in police overtime over last year's overtime budget.
• Questions about how the budget was balanced. A member of the city's Budget Advisory Commission, speaking for himself, questioned two of the budget's accounting moves. He said using leftover parks money from past years to meet the parks measure's spending rule did not match what voters intended. He also warned that some one-time money is paying for ongoing new jobs. He said those jobs could cost more than $1 million a year going forward. He urged the council to either find steady funding for them or label them as temporary.

Also happened

• A one-year position to enforce and collect human-trafficking and other fines.
• A new position to run a community-garden food pilot.
• More money for the city's film-incentive program, run through a contract with an outside group.
• A study of a park-ranger program and permitted vending at Lake Merritt, due before the next budget.
• Quarterly reports on the city's 2025 encampment-abatement policy.
• A study of a cultural-facilities bond for the Malonga Casquelourd Center and Children's Fairyland, due October 2027.

For any updates or corrections, please email steven@polisdesk.com