OAKLAND — Mayor Ron Dellums won a victory Tuesday night when the City Council voted to place a measure before voters in November to institute a parcel tax in exchange for a boost in police personnel.

Now comes the tough part: getting it approved at the ballot box.

"I think most people realize that there is a need for increased police officers, particularly in investigative units," Dellums said Tuesday, adding, "If you ask me to speculate about whether I think it will pass, my view is that I think it will pass."

It would take a two-thirds vote for the tax to go into effect. A poll obtained by the Tribune and conducted June 21 through June 23 said that 61 percent of respondents said they were inclined to support a measure very close to the one the council placed on the ballot. That figure compared to 33 percent who said they were inclined to vote against it.

The poll also found that 55 percent of respondents said that "things in Oakland are generally" on the "wrong track." Nineteen percent said that things are headed in the right direction.

The poll, conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, surveyed about 400 people.

It was done at the request of the mayor's office, some members of the City Council and some people outside of City Hall.

The poll cost about $20,000 and it has not yet been determined how much the city will pay, said Dellums spokesman Paul Rose.

The Oakland Safe Streets

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Committee, a group that had worked with elected officials on crafting a ballot measure, was not involved in the survey, said Greg McConnell, the group's executive director.

"The poll is a snapshot of what we believe is an affordable, fiscally responsible and obtainable way to put more officers on the streets. This is the beginning of a conversation the mayor has said he wants to have with Oakland residents to help us achieve our overall public-safety goals," Rose said.

The ballot measure would provide funds to hire an additional 105 officers and 75 more nonsworn police services technicians over a three-year period, as well as install a new crime-data management system.

For a single-family residential property, the tax would be $113 for fiscal 2009-10 and rise incrementally to $276 in 2011-12. Exemptions would be made for low-income families.

For an occupied multifamily unit, the tax would start at $77 and rise to $188 by 2011-12.

Councilmember Patricia Kernighan (Grand Lake-Chinatown) said Tuesday that she will introduce legislation in the fall to allow rental property owners to split the tax 50-50 with their tenants.

The tax on businesses, in the meantime, would vary depending on frontage and overall square footage. A business equivalent to a single-family residence would pay $58 in 2009-10, rising to $141 in 2011-12.

The council voted 6-2 to place the measure on the ballot. Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale) was one of the dissenters and said that an informal survey of 542 people he conducted found 68.8 percent of voters were opposed to the measure and 31.2 percent were in favor.

He disagreed with the mayor and predicted that based on the feedback he is getting, the measure will fail.

Funding restored

The council voted Tuesday to restore funding for the position of public safety director in Dellums' office.

Lenore Anderson, Dellums' former public safety director, left at the end of June to take a position in San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris' office.

Deputy Police Chief Jeff Loman is serving on an interim basis until a permanent replacement can be found.

But when the council approved changes to the city's 2007-09 two-year spending plan in June, it cut funding for the public safety position in the mayor's office, prompting Dellums to say he would do whatever he could to restore it. The funding for the position, which pays $123,000-a-year in salary, will be split 50-50 between the city administrator's general purpose fund and Oakland redevelopment dollars.

The council also agreed to restore funding for a $150,000 consulting contract to aid in the selection of a new city administrator and help assess the structure of the mayor and city administrator's offices.

No deal has been finalized for that contract, but it is likely the contract will go to former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb. Former City Administrator Deborah Edgerly was fired July 1.

OakPAC for Kaplan

OakPAC, the political action committee affiliated with the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, announced Thursday that it will support Rebecca Kaplan in her bid to be the City Council's lone citywide representative.

Kaplan, an AC Transit board member, is facing Kerry Hamill, a school board member, after the two emerged as the top vote getters in a five-way primary election June 3. Kaplan took in 40.3 percent of the vote to Hamill's 21.8 percent. OakPAC had endorsed Clinton Killian, an attorney who finished third.

Reach Kelly Rayburn at 510-208-6435 or krayburn@bayareanewsgroup.com.