As she looks at the year ahead, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf should follow the approach of her newly appointed police chief.

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New Oakland police chief: ‘I don’t consider it a mess’ Anne Kirkpatrick was asked at her unveiling last week why she’s giving up a key job in Chicago to take on the mess here, where the police department is under federal court oversight and plagued by sex scandals.

“I don’t consider it a mess, it’s an opportunity,” said Kirkpatrick, who will officially take the helm on Feb. 27. She’s right: She has an opportunity to bring long-overdue and substantive change.

The same can be said of the mayor. 2017 will be the year Schaaf makes her mark — or doesn’t. We’ll soon see if she seizes the opportunity to reshape the city’s bureaucracy and finances, or continues Oakland’s past path of deadly government mediocrity and fiscal irresponsibility.

For Schaaf, the selection of a new chief was high on a long list of challenges she faces. The list should also include righting the city’s long-term finances and leadership change at the dysfunctional Fire Department in the wake of the Ghost Ship inferno. And she should not waste much time on the seemingly futile task of keeping the Raiders.

Schaaf seems to be off to a good start with the selection of Kirkpatrick, who brings a refreshing mix of levity and tough, serious dedication to reform, or, as she prefers, transformation.

Kirkpatrick served as chief of three Washington state cities, including Spokane; FBI instructor to high-ranking law enforcement officials; and bureau chief in Chicago in charge of implementing reforms for that troubled police department.

But transformation of the Oakland Police Department will be impossible without sustainable funding. If you can’t put enough cops on the street in a crime-ridden city, no police chief can succeed.

Financial planning isn’t sexy. Yet here is where Schaaf can make a long-term difference. Her two predecessors, Ronald Dellums and Jean Quan, were incapable of budgeting beyond the year ahead and blindly pushed debt onto future generations.

As a result, when Schaaf came into office in 2015, the city faced a $39 million annual shortfall, predicted to rise to $58 million by 2020, largely because of rising pension costs and growing payments on deferred debt.

In her first year, Schaaf had to scramble to pull together the city’s budget while working with the mess she inherited. Since the city is on a two-year budget cycle, 2017 provides her first real opportunity to produce a plan placing the city on a long-term path of solvency.

Voters last year lent her a huge assist when they approved $500 million in bonds for roads, infrastructure and capital needs. The booming housing market has also driven up property taxes substantially.

Now it’s up to Schaaf to seize the moment.