Newly discovered Oakland budget funds could go towards reopening fire stations
Oakland city leaders say they have found about $8 million to allocate in their budget, with some calling for it to be used to fund the operation of multiple fire stations that have either already closed or are scheduled to close.
The city council still has yet to vote on the money will be used.
"I'm just going to show you on our map here," said Oakland Fire Captain Brian Oftedal, pointing to a map that shows the large area the station covers. "We're currently at Station 21 on Skyline Boulevard. We're going to go down to Keller and we'll come down to Ridgemont Drive here."
That drive is at least three miles, depending on the route you take. The drive has many lights on winding streets.
Station 21 firefighters have to go there because the two adjacent stations -- Station 25 and Station 28 -- closed on January 6th in an effort to help balance the city's $129 million budget deficit.
Oftedal says firefighters and the residents are feeling it.
"Our call volume has definitely increased," said Oftedal. "We're definitely noticing our response time increase."
CBS Bay Area got in the fire truck with Oftedal and took a drive down to the district served by Station 25. It took about six and a half minutes to get there.
"The range we should be getting a fire apparatus on scene is within four minutes, so we're definitely not hitting that mark," said Oftedal regarding the national standard for a fire vehicles arrival. "Based on the call type, it's life and death."
The city's finance committee is working to do what they can to fix the issue and prioritize people's safety. The committee chair, District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, started looking for the money to keep the stations open.
"Various fund balances, so you have to really dig into the books go through various Excel sheets, talk to different department heads," said Ramachandran about how she found the money.
Some of the funds are now available that weren't before, like $2.6 million from the Oakland Coliseum due to higher than expected ticket sales.
CBS Bay Area asked if she expects to find more money.
"Honestly I'm not sure. We just have to keep digging. But what I do know is we have much more opportunity for collecting revenue than we're doing right now," said Ramachandran. "For example, business license taxes and vacant property taxes. There are so many things like parking enforcement!
The rest of the 8 million dollars funding will be coming from Oakland's self-insurance livability fund and Measure BB, which is a transportation sales tax that was approved by Alameda County voters back in 2014.
It's not a done deal. The city council will vote on whether or not they should allocate the $8 million towards the fire department at their March 4th meeting. If they vote against it, four more stations are expected to close in March.
But Oftedal remains optimistic.
"I'm very hopeful that city council is going to work through that plan and keep the stations open, as well as open up the current stations that are browned out," said Oftedal.
He says until then, he wants the community to know they are doing their best under the circumstances.
"We do have firefighters who are here and we're going to get to your house as efficiently and as safely as we can," said Oftedal. "So just know that we are coming. It may take us a little bit longer. "
Fighting to protect the community, despite limited resources.