OAKLAND, Calif. -- A 2-month investigation into the expenses of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has found a pattern of what appears to be extravagant spending at taxpayer expense, even as the mayor suggests shutting down City Hall for a dozen days and raising taxes.

The expenses include stays at 5-star hotels in Washington D.C. such as the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, on his many travels away from Oakland, although Dellums owns a luxurious home in the nearby exclusive enclave of Georgetown. The data obtained though the California Public Records Act also shows expensive meals, limousine services and even hundreds of dollars in flowers – all at taxpayer expense.

Oakland is facing a $14.5 million deficit in the next financial year. Dellums is calling for furloughing city workers for 12 days in the next 12 months – all without pay – and severely cutting back already stretched city services.

He is also recommending a $12 million tax hike to deal with the city’s notorious crime problem that has many Oakland residents in an uproar.

The KTVU Channel 2 probe also found Dellums has a staff almost twice as large as the previous mayor’s, now Attorney General Jerry Brown. Among the more than dozen new positions for Dellums is a fulltime chauffeur, who gets paid $60,000 a year.

While Brown spent $120 in reimbursed expenses in his last year in office, the KTVU Channel 2 probe found Dellums has spent more than $50,000 in personal expenses above and beyond his $183,000 a year salary. Brown turned down raises and made $115,000. He drove himself.

Brown’s staff spent some $2,000 in taxpayer money on reimbursed expenses in his last year in office, compared to almost $50,000 by the Dellums staff.

A detailed examination of Dellums calendar also found the 72-year-old Dellums worked significantly less than eight hours a day at least a full third of all the work days he did clock.

A Dellums spokesman said the mayor was unavailable to comment.

Editor’s Note: Late last week, after the KTVU story was completed, a mayor’s aid called to say Dellums will partially reimburse Oakland taxpayers for his personal expenses at the two luxury hotels in Washington, D.C. The aide did not state when or how much Dellums would pay back.