There’s a major fallout in Oakland after the city missed a deadline to submit an application to receive millions of dollars from the state to address crime.
The city is reviewing what went wrong, and some community organizers say it’s a missed opportunity to address the city’s rising crime rate.
Dozens of law enforcement agencies across California are set to receive millions of dollars from the state. The funds will be used to hire more officers, create task forces and develop investigative units and to help make more arrests and prosecute more suspects, when it comes to organized retail theft and other crimes around the region.
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Several Bay Area cities are on the list, including San Francisco, which will receive $17 million. But the city of Oakland is noticeably absent.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao gave her thoughts on the situation during an interview with NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai Thursday.
“We are having internal conversations as well to ensure this doesn’t happen again, but I would definitely urge you to reach out to the city’s administrator's office,” she said.
Carl Chan, a community leader in Oakland’s Chinatown, says businesses in the area do not feel safe due to the rising crime rate. He feels the money would have been put to good use and hopes the state will reconsider Oakland for funding.
"It’s devastating to the people but also to the small businesses," he said. “Pretty much, the entire city would’ve benefitted if we have this money."
This incident comes at a time when Thao is willing to declare a state of emergency if the city’s police commission doesn’t provide three candidates for police chief by the end of the year.
Oakland has had eight police chiefs in the last 14 years, and the city has been without a permanent chief for the past seven months.
As for the city missing out on the grant money, Oakland officials are doing a review and taking action to make sure this doesn’t happen again, including hiring a person to specifically handle any applications for state grants.
“I can't say the words I would like to say on television right now. I may not be a bishop when I finishing expressing myself with those words. The point of it is, it is horrible to think we have missed a golden opportunity to get millions of dollars which we desperately need,” said Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church and NAACP Oakland member.
The group's local chapter reached out to the governor's office to see if there is a chance the state would reconsider.
“I wish the voters would wake up and smell the coffee, we are in dire straits. Some people are living in denial. The city is out of control. We need to call a state of emergency,” said Jackson.
It’s a funding failure the police association says could have paid for things like police cameras, license plate readers and other major safety resources at a time when crime is spiking.
“There is no city in California that needs that money more and those resources more than Oakland and it is the height of incompetence that they did not manage to get it together in time to send it in,” said Sergeant Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association.
“Multitude of calls from the retailers on the street ‘what the hell are you guys doing? We are here suffering with the safety issue,'” said Councilmember Noel Gallo.
He is looking for other funding opportunities to address crime in the governor's budget, including partnering with the CHP and the sheriff’s office.
“Now in terms of the retail theft that’s moved but there may be other ways that we can pick up millions of dollars for law enforcement,” said Gallo.
As community members wait, many are blaming the mayor for a lack of oversight and leadership.
“It’s a catastrophe I call it,” said Jackson. “You are not focusing on what is impacting the citizens of this city.”
NBC Bay Area reached out to the city administrator's office, and it released the following statement Thursday:
"In early June the City's Economic & Workforce Development Department (EWDD) staff identified the Governor's Real Public Safety Plan grant opportunity and collaborated with OPD and community partners to put together an application. OPD and the community partners timely provided their material. Unfortunately EWDD did not timely complete the submission.
Obviously this outcome is unacceptable. The City and department are reviewing everything that happened to ensure it does not happen again, and will take appropriate action. EWDD leadership is already implementing internal protocol changes to prevent future issues like this one.
For many years the City has had a decentralized approach to the grants process that sometimes produces challenges like this one. Mayor Thao and the City Council recognized this as a systemic problem and in the two-year budget the Council adopted in June, they invested in a new grants position that will help centralize and streamline the City's grants process, with an eye on specifically preventing future issues like this one. The City Administrator is working with the City's hiring team to expedite the hire of that position now.
Community safety remains the City's highest priority, and we are grateful for the many resources our regional and state partners continue to provide."
