OAKLAND VOTERS BACK TWO MARQUEE BALLOT MEASURES

OAKLAND - The city's two marquee ballot measures won Tuesday night,
but some observers say the results send a mixed message and leave a
lingering divide on how to throttle Oakland's crime problem.

Voters gave strong support to Measure Y, which will raise about $20
million a year through a parcel tax and increased parking fees to pay
for 63 more police officers and violence prevention measures. The vote
smashed the two-thirds majority needed for passage by winning nearly
70 percent support, ending a run in which two similar ballot measures
stumbled at the polls in recent years.

Although voters answered the call to help Oakland's overextended
police force, they brushed aside local law enforcement wishes by
supporting Measure Z, which set recreational marijuana use by adults
as the city's lowest law enforcement priority.

Measure Z calls on local government to lobby against laws prohibiting
private pot use by adults, and to develop plans to license and tax the
sale, use and cultivation of pot for private use "as soon as possible
under California law." The measure received 64 percent of the vote.

"The people of Oakland recognize the drug war is a failure," said Joe
DeVries, leader of the Z campaign. "They are saying loud and clear
that locking up cannabis offenders is not a priority."

But Ignacio De La Fuente, president of the City Council, said it is
wrong to move toward sanctioning any illegal drug use when the city
struggles with violent crime, much of it involving the drug trade.

"The outside perception of Oakland is that we're the drug capital of
the world," De La Fuente said. "This does nothing to help that."

Following a brief lull during the late 1990s, the rate of Oakland
homicides and other violent crimes has seen a resurgence in recent
years, prompting Mayor Jerry Brown and other city officials to explore
ways to stifle it.

Brown has touted new approaches, like a mandatory re-entry program for
residents newly released from prison and a curfew for parolees. But
the famously unconventional mayor has embraced a conventional war on
crime as well, fighting for years to pay for more cops in a city whose
police force is chronically understaffed.

Twice in the past two years, however, Brown-backed ballot measures
seeking more cops have been rejected at the polls. Voters supported
Measure FF in 2002, which called for 100 new cops, but an accompanying
tax measure to pay for it was turned down.

De La Fuente said the concept was sold to voters as a "balanced
approach" toward crime-fighting that earmarks nearly as much money for
violence-prevention programs, especially those targeting youths, as it
does for bolstered law enforcement.

"We need violence prevention," he said. "At the same time, we need as
many cops as we can get."

The cannabis measure met strong resistance at City Hall, where it was
opposed by some council members, and city legal staff members assert
key provisions are unconstitutional.

DeVries said he is hopeful city officials will heed the voters' will
and work to make sure it is enforced. First up will be creation of an
11-person advisory group to guide efforts to implement it.

"This law is not just symbolic," he said. "There are several concrete
steps that need to be taken so that the wishes of 65 percent of the
voters are followed."