A highlight of the Ninth Annual OPL Advocates Holiday Mixer was the presence of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas (District 2), and Councilmembers Dan Kalb (District 1) and Carroll Fife (District 3), all of whom pledged to support the upcoming renewal of OPL’s Measure Q parcel tax.
Measure Q renewal will be OPL Advocates’ biggest goal in 2022. Measure Q was approved by Oakland voters in 2004. It has a 20-year lifespan and will expire in 2024.
The library has three main funding sources. One is the General Fund, which is decided by City Council. The other two funding sources are parcel taxes – Measure D, which voters approved in 2018, and Measure Q. Together, the two ballot measures fund a large majority of library expenditures.
To maintain current levels of library services – and keep all library locations open and at current hours – renewal of Measure Q will be necessary.
It looks extremely likely that a measure to renew Measure Q will be on your ballots in June 2022. That’s right – only seven months from now. The support of the mayor and City Council will be crucial to get the measure on the ballot and also to raise funds for the campaign.
Members of OPL advocate groups made Measure D a smashing success in 2018 by contributing untold volunteer hours, phone banking, holding house parties, going door-to-door, getting out the yard signs, talking to neighbors, and so on. Your help was critical and enormously appreciated, and you will be needed again.
The official campaign won’t begin until a ballot measure is approved by City Council. So what can you do now? Plenty!
Sign up now to join the future campaign! Go to www.opladvocates.org and fill out our quick and easy campaign volunteer form in the upper right corner of the homepage.
Spread the word about all the library has done throughout the entire pandemic. Go to www.opladvocates.org, where an infographic on the homepage provides specific information you can use. You can easily share the whole website on social media.
Spread the word about the upcoming Measure Q campaign to other members of your Oakland circles, as well as family, neighbors and friends.
Sign up for OPL Advocates email alerts to keep up with campaign news and calls for action. The email address to sign up for alerts, as well as links to our social media, are all at www.opladvocates.org.