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Oakland scales back controversial plan to shutter fire stations
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Oakland has scaled back its plan to close fire stations to offset the city’s $62 million budget shortfall.Nina Riggio / Special to The Chronicle
Oakland will deactivate one fire station instead of three to help offset the city’s budget shortfall a compromise after firefighters and neighboring communities that contract with the city for fire protection criticized the earlier plan.
The decision announced Friday comes after discussions between the city administration and the local firefighters union. It will go into effect on Wednesday and last until June.
“Obviously, we think that the fire department should be at full strength. This is not something we take lightly, but we are happy that the city backed off their plan to close three,” said Zac Unger, president of Oakland Firefighters Local 55. “We understand the budget realities being what they are, no service is going to stay whole, a
Jan 6, 2021
The city of Oakland is facing a $62 million budget deficit. They are now proposing to cut 3 of the 25 fire stations.
The president of Oakland Firefighters Local 55, Zac Unger, said,
We’ve never closed firehouses, we’ve never closed three at a time. That’s a number that is just astronomical. It’s going to mean that there are parts of Oakland that won’t be able to get a response from a fire engine for 10 to 15 minutes.
Photo:GettyImages
We plan to fight : Oakland divided over $62M budget cuts, likely to impact police, public safety
Mayor Schaaf says no police or firefighters are being laid off, but the cuts could impact special units and response time.
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OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) The city of Oakland says it could run out of money by June 2021, the end of its fiscal year, if it doesn t make cuts now. Every day that we delay taking action, means the cuts will be have to be deeper later, explained Edward Reiskin, Oakland City Administrator.
He spoke at an emergency city council meeting ahead of a vote on salary deferrals for some of Oakland s highest paid city employees.