Mayor Quan Wants Oakland Budget On The Fast Track

OAKLAND (KCBS) -- Usually the Mayor of Oakland starts gearing up for budget discussions in early May, but Mayor Jean Quan isn't wasting any time. She wants to have the framework in place within the next couple of weeks for City Council review.

According to Quan, the sooner the interested parties start sitting down and talking about underfunding issues and possible program cuts, the better.

"If the governor were to cut redevelopment we would lose $28 million. If the federal government were to pass all of the cuts that are being talked about in Washington, that's another $8 million," she said.

The mayor, who had been lobbying for federal and state dollars in Sacramento and Washington for much of the week, said her strategy so far has been to do the budget in layers.

"I've been calling it a budget with options, because the City Council will need to make some key decisions on what they want to do," said Quan. "Based on that, I'll do a more refined one," she added in reference to the budget.

Quan said the main objective is to be more efficient with time, more realistic with their goals, and to be as transparent as possible so constituents feel like they're being well represented and that the city's fiscal survivor in 2011 depends on the funds she's been attempting to acquire on the state and federal level.

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