Measure NN Bait & Switch: MORE BROKEN PROMISES!?

[00:00:23][screaming] Yo, you got the juice now, man.

[00:00:59]Peace. Peace. Oakland. What's up, y'all?

[00:01:02]We got the juice now.

[00:01:05]I picked that scene for a reason. It wasn't a happy one. And yes, although the protagonist won and beat off the bully and got the juice like Oakland taxpayers now have the juice, it's bittersweet.

[00:01:19]anyone who has ever had to stop supporting a loved one or stop giving money to someone that you were financially supporting because they were a drug addict or they were irresponsible with the money and you were doing them more harm than good, it didn't feel good when you were doing it. And so while it felt tremendous to finally put these Saudis, the nonprofit industrial complex and the public sector labor unions in their places and let them know that the taxpayers are fed up with their lives.

[00:01:50]It doesn't feel good to know that the city of Oakland simply does not have the money that we need. We don't have the revenue that we need. We're going to be talking about that today. We're going to be doing some um financial reports because in the news today there is a special section special session in the city of Oakland. Let me get my coffee.

[00:02:11]Hold on.

[00:02:14]special session in the city of Oakland today as reported by the Oakland Report to declare a fiscal emergency and once again raid restricted NN funds and other restricted funds for the purpose of paying unions more money and not doing the hard things which is laying off or at least not funding positions that aren't even filled anyway. And they lied about that 700 cops. So let's get all into it.

[00:02:43]Oakland's unanticipated financial emergency set to enter its fourth year. This is today on the Oakland Report. One of the only places that you will get timely, relevant, and actionable information about what's going on in city hall because Oakland side and the mother crumb media aren't going to tell you anything. Let's get all up in this report because I got I got some things to share in addition to what Sean Reinhardt and the Oakland report uh put out today.

[00:03:17]So, here we have the Oakland Agenda Watch, which is a part of the Oakland Report that watches the city council agendas and let people know what's going on. Oakland's mayor and city council are set to declare a severe and unanticipated, remember those words, financial event for the fourth year in a row and suspend voter approved protection in order to divert promised tax funding to other purposes. other purposes like paying their union handlers that get them elected and spend millions of dollars like the over $1 million they spend on measure N E measure E that just failed.

[00:03:58]They spent like a million on measure NN too. So more broken promises today and I'll click on the agenda item for those of you who are curious.

[00:04:08]today. Uh I think right now they are declaring that a waiver and use of one-time revenues to balance the budget.

[00:04:21]Interesting. And I don't know if you guys saw that or not. Hold on. Well, whether you saw it or not, I'll get back to this one. The statute to formally declare a severe and unanticipated financial event for the fourth year in a row. I don't know how something's unanticipated by very nature of it being four consecutive years.

[00:04:42]If the council declares this severe unanticipated event, it will again suspend votermandated requirements for the use of multiple tax funds, not just measure NN, and allow the mayor and council to divert those restricted funds to other purposes. With today's resolution, the mayor and city council appear set to break the following legal, financial, and political promises. the 700 officer minimum police staffing required by measure NN passed in 2024.

[00:05:14]democracy dollars, public campaign financing of measure W in 2022, the parks maintenance guarantee of measure Q in 2020, the sugar sweeted beverage tax spending restrictions and advisory board requirements of measure HH of 2016, divert money from the affordable housing trust fund, and use one-time revenues for ongoing expenses in violation of the city's consolidated fiscal policy.

[00:05:44]Now, according to the city staff report, approximately 33.9 million industricted funds will be diverted.

[00:05:54]The staff warns that without the declaration, the mayor's proposal would not be legal to adopt.

[00:06:03]Now, I'm going to stop right there.

[00:06:07]If they don't lie and weigh measure in and funds, it wouldn't be legal to adopt a budget because the city of Oakland's bankrupt.

[00:06:18]That's what you got to read between the lines. And I'm going to prove my hypothesis. I am going to prove it. You know, I always got receipts. But before I get into my argument, let's go through a few things that we need to talk about.

[00:06:35]First, we have formed an Oakland taxpayers association. So, you need to know that um I'm going to share with you the website. Please check this website out. It is oakland taxpayers.org.org.

[00:06:57]oaklandaxpayers.org.

[00:07:00]Please join us and we will be giving you a lot more information about how you can advocate for the responsible use of our taxpayer dollars. Now the next thing I want to share is a recent article that I thought was very interesting from the SF gate.

[00:07:20]Uh I think that was yesterday Oakland council members proposed amendments to fund defeated measure E one-time proposal. And then we have here in our photo four council members, President Kevin Jenkins, district 6, district 4 council member, this is from left to right, council member Janani Ramachandran, we have at large council member Rowena Brown, and we have district 1 and former uh fire union chief from district 1, Zack.

[00:07:53]Now, I thought this article was interesting. And it gave us some insight to what is going on with these people's minds. If they think that we're that stupid, look, we're going to continue to let them lie to us. And I say that because we just beat a 5050 tax measure to over 50% of Oakland voters who participated in that special election decided that they did not trust Barbar and the public sector labor unions.

[00:08:22]If I was them, I would be worried.

[00:08:25]So yes um and Kevin Jenkins says that he has an interesting quote here. Measure ease loss was a rebuke of the status quo at city hall said Kevin Jenkins city council president and district 6 council member. It was a telling sign that voters want to do want us to do more with their precious tax dollars than we already have. And this budget represents that. Now, I don't know if this budget represents that, but he is right. We want them to do more for with our taxpayer dollars. And according to District 4, council member, these proposed amendments would represent creative solutions for 5 million in one-time capital improvements originally posed under Measure E, such as funding new fire engines, dump trucks, and restoring emergency shelter bags.

[00:09:20]Where's the money from Ray Babg that was due this month? I believe they owe $10 million.

[00:09:28]I believe they owe $10 million to the city of Oakland due this month. No one's talking about that. Where's the money, Ray?

[00:09:36]So, you may want to know, oh, one more thing. Zack Anger says something um really interesting.

[00:09:46]Zik 1 council member Zach Anger highlighted that the proposals would not add any additional full-time employees or provide current city employees with a raise. However, however, Anger said that he remains focused on figuring out a way to provide city employees with compensation in line with other municipalities. that is his priority, not delivering on the 700 officers that we voted on. Notice that nobody talked about those 700 officers that we voted on, but we're going to talk about it today. I want to go back to the Oakland Report article before I move on with what I've got prepared for you today because it I want to talk about why what example did uh I'm sorry, what excuse did the city give as to why they will be declaring a one-time fiscal emergency?

[00:10:49]I'm going to go to that. Um, sorry. I'm just reading through this real quick.

[00:11:00]Oh, just so you know, the deadline for 700 officers, the deadline for 700 officers is July 1st, 2026. So according to measure NN the city council because that's when the budget is due. They have until July 1st of this year to fund and have 700 officers.

[00:11:22]This city resolution declares a severe and unanticipated event singular and assert that the city cannot budget for these 700 officers required by measure NN. The city has yet to honor the 700 officer requirement. In its current midcycle budget, only funds 678 officers and around 60 of these officers are currently vacant.

[00:11:46]And due to worker compensation and other forms of leave, the current actual number of police officers and active duty is around just 500 officers. You heard that correct? Just 500 cops for a city of a half a million.

[00:12:00]The city staff calculates that in order to meet the 700 officer requirement, three additional policemies, which the report says is not feasible, would be needed at a cost of 11.8 million. An additional 7 million will be needed in ongoing cost for additional officers totaling 8.8 million. So what they use to do this, what the city said was unanticipated.

[00:12:26]This is the important part.

[00:12:30]They said that the real estate transfer tax was lower than hope.

[00:12:36]They're claiming that the event is that the real estate transfer tax, which is collected every time a city sells a property, fell from 138.4 million to a forecasted 72 million in the year 2026. But the 138.4 4 million comes from 2021 2022 which is a a statistical analy year because we were selling lots of property and um and a and a major properties were sold during that time that don't typically happen and it gives some more numbers. I suggest that you go into this in detail but let me let me just stop here. I'm about to just tear [snorts] this up. I'm about to tear this up because check this out. Check this out.

[00:13:26]Y'all remember this?

[00:13:29]Y'all remember this city auditor's report? City of Oakland's financial condition between fiscal years 2012 and 2013 and 2021, 2022, which ended the year that they're using as their benchmark. There's something in this study very important about the real estate transfer tax. Now remember, the independently elected city auditor is routinely ignored.

[00:13:55]His recommendations are routinely ignored. They act like he doesn't exist.

[00:14:00]Here he has in his warning that the real estate transfer tax, which is assessed whenever there's a change in ownership of real property, is a highly volatile revenue source and can increase and decrease rapidly with change in market conditions.

[00:14:18]In fiscal year 2021 2022, real estate transfer tax revenues increased by 25 million or 22% based on sales growth for real property. I'll say that again.

[00:14:32]I'll say louder for the people in the back. I'm sorry, wrong one. I'll say it louder for the people in the back.

[00:14:41]City auditor warned just five years ago that the real estate transfer tax is a highly volatile revenue source and can increase and decrease rapidly with change of market conditions. And here he even goes so far as to give examples of these changing market conditions where you can look at the fiscal years, the real estate transfer tax and its volatility and how there's big swings up and down.

[00:15:08]So, this cannot be an unforeseen event for something that is known to be volatile. And I'll add this isn't just the city of Oakland. Real estate transfer tax unknown to anybody who has even a baseline understanding of municipal finance to be volatile for obvious reasons again for anyone who's qualified to hold these positions. So, they're lying to us.

[00:15:33]Oakland is bankrupt and they're lying to us. Oakland is bankrupt and they're lying to us.

[00:15:43]We between the lines. A staff report warns that without this emergency declaration of of we're broke basically and we're going to lie, the mayor's proposed budget would not be legal to adopt.

[00:16:02]So, I don't really got much else to say. If city council approves this, let me warn you, and I've called several city council members and I've told them this over the phone. If you do not budget for 700 officers and start doing everything you can in good faith to give us our 700 officers, we will be filing a lawsuit to stop collecting of measure and in tax.

[00:16:28]Because remember, if you look at that nice little uh video I had here, if the city fails to budget for, they can't collect that tax.

[00:16:39]If the city fails to budget for it, they can't collect that tax. Which means that not only will they not get that measure E money, they won't get that measure NN money. And we can stop funding our city's fentinol habit and their crop crack cocaine habit. We can stop funding this endless money that goes to them to give to their union grifters that demand endless raises while most of them are working from home. Oh yeah, a lot of Oakland workers are still working from home. If we ever had any type of audit, Michael Houston, maybe that's something you need to do. How many city of Oakland workers, union members are working from home? And of those, how many have other jobs? because when they did that same audit in San Francisco, hundreds of their employees, also union members, were guilty of that infraction. I don't think Oakland is much different. And I think if you were to actually look into what these people are doing on the time that we're paying for, taxpayers are paying for, you'll find out something really disturbing. Now, I have a track record of being right about a whole lot of stuff.

[00:17:45]so much now that all of a sudden after using my name as a political culture and weaponizing my name and my reputation to bully and shame other people in Oakland. I say that because Mayor Barbara Lee had me on her website lying about me. Former Mayor Shental's first words out her mouth during her infamous press conference, I'm not going down like that which talk about me.

[00:18:14]All of a sudden, they didn't forgot my name. You know why? Because if you say my name five times in the mirror, I may pop up like Candyman and take your [ __ ] job in your career. Harold Duffy, Justin Johnson, Ching Tile, Brandon Harami, Le Hansen.

[00:18:31]We got some more names we need to add to that list.

[00:18:34]Ryan Richardson, I can't wait to see you in court because I know that you losers are not going to staff the 700 officer.

[00:18:44]Barb pretty much said, "I'm not laying anyone off." That means you're not going to use one of the only tools you have to really balance the budget.

[00:18:53]layoffs need to be on the table because the city of Oakland is financially insolvent.

[00:18:59]The city of Oakland is financially insolvent. I'll put this up again.

[00:19:05]without this lie that the city has an unforeseen financial crisis unanticipated. There's nothing unanticipated our financial about our financial acuity. How many warnings have we had? We have had the city's own finance director put out a a budget report that said Oakland faced the risk of of fiscal insolveny only to yank it back and release another one where the the language is watered down. That lady resigned and is suing the city of Oakland right now over being forced to project revenue. Aaron Roseman, I believe her name is, former city of Oakland finance staff or director or whatever. Bradley Johnson, what are you doing? I know you have half of a brain.

[00:19:45]Why are you letting them do that?

[00:19:48]It's actually should not be legal to adopt now because the city of Oakland is lying about an unforeseen financial event. There's no event that's unforeseen about real estate transfer tax being volatile. This is a statement of fact to the matter of public record.

[00:20:03]You have had frequent warnings from a city auditor and you ignore them like you ignore most of the warning from Oakland city auditor Michael Houston.

[00:20:11]Oh, I cannot wait to go to court. I cannot wait to see you guys explain to this to the entire world. I cannot wait to have access to discovery to pull back all of the conversation while you cooked up. What would this event be? What lies would you tell to Oakland taxpayers next? What lies will you tell to Oakland taxpayers next about why you can't have our 700 officers? And remember, the people in charge of this were the ones who tried to defund Oakland's police.

[00:20:41]Yes, we put this on Gotham Oakland.

[00:20:44]Barby's chief of staff, Mia Saka Chin, used to work for Nikki Fortonado Bath.

[00:20:49]Miyasaka Chen authored the the policy that attempted to defund Oakland's police by 50%.

[00:20:57]Since then, Oakland's police had dropped by about 50%. So, they have achieved that goal of defunding Oakland's police.

[00:21:04]Now, we have 500 officers.

[00:21:06]Now, we have 500 officers for a city of a half a million. Yeah. Pretty cool.

[00:21:12]Pretty [ __ ] cool. Um, I see you in court. City of Oakland. Oakland's Taxpayers Alliance, we're not having this. So, when you make this decision today, every single word that comes out of your mouth, I need you to think about that because we're going to be replaying these videos for a judge.

[00:21:32]And I want you to explain how attacks, which our own city auditor has told you is volatile, which anyone who again has a elementary understanding of municipal finance knows is volatile.

[00:21:46]Anyone who's been just looking at I I put it up again. Anyone who's even been looking at these last couple years can see that it's volatile.

[00:21:56]And that's the excuse that you guys came up with.

[00:22:02]You probably should have went with Ray Baba didn't come up with the money. I mean, you knew that wasn't going to happen either, but that would have been a little bit closer to something that was unforeseen. This is embarrassing.

[00:22:14]It is embarrassing. And you think that Oakland voters are stupid, but we're not stupid. And we're waking up. Oakland voters are waking up. And just like we just defeated Measure E, we're going to get a tremendous amount of support for the lawsuit to demand that you guys do what you said. Give us those 700 officers or stop charging us the tax. I don't have anything left to say. Make sure you hold your city accountable. Watch Gotham Oakland.

[00:22:44]Please like, comment, and subscribe.

[00:22:46]Peace y'all. I love you. Take it easy.

[00:22:51]>> It's only up from here. Y'all swear it's only up from here.

[00:22:55]Yo, I swear it's only up from here.

[00:22:57]Y'all swear [music] it's only up from here.