This week, we thought we would focus in on what the priorities of our city government should be, given its limited resources. We daily columnists will all be weighing in on our regular days with some thoughts of our own. To get the ball rolling, we want to give our bloggers an open forum to express their views first. So we hope that you will take the opportunity to tell us what you think today.
It’s worth taking note of the fact that the City of San Jose’s operating and capital budgets total more than $3 billion in the current fiscal year—that’s right, three billion. That combines the operations of the General Fund, used for regular operating expenditures; the Special Purpose Funds for direct funding of specific operations like the airport; and the Capital Fund used for infrastructure improvements. Each of these areas accounts for about 1/3 of the total amount. Police and fire are the biggest numbers in the General Fund, and the airport, water and sewer, and parks and community facilities take the lion’s share of the other two. I highly recommend downloading a PDF copy of the 2006-7 budget in brief located at this link.
We have had many discussions here on the site about how the city should budget its resources in certain areas like transportation, the police and the arts. Do you think the current city budget is an accurate reflection of where we should be right now overall? Are there areas that need more attention and others that need less or none? Are we getting the services that we need at a fair price? What should our new mayor and council be focusing their efforts on now and in the future? How best can we citizens provide the necessary oversight to ensure that our city government accomplishes our shared civic goals? How do we make sure that we are getting our money’s worth and that our city is operating efficiently and honestly?
All views are welcome and important to this discussion, so please feel free to take this opportunity to express yourself on this issue and join in the discussion below.
A greater portion of the general fund should be devoted to maintaining our parks, community centers and libraries. My understanding is that less than 10 percent of the city’s $3 Billion budget is devoted to this.
We have a severe deficit of parks and community centers, and those we do have are in many cases closed or in significant disrepair. The problem is particularly acute with athletic fields. We need many more of them and we need to have them well-maintained.
Further, although we are building new libraries, we lack the staff to keep them open or the funds to stock them all with materials.
This is a small component of the city’s budget but, meanwhile, a big aspect of residents’ dissatisfaction with the delivery of city services.
#1
Sounds simple. Huge impact. I agree. Easier said than done.
If the Mayor weighed 300 lbs. was diabetic and in a wheel chair he might be an effective spokes person to lecture and motivate folks. But not this Mayor. Not easily anyway.
Then again, he’s pretty bright and might find a way to support groups and organizations working on this problem.
The city should concentrate on reducing the budget and stop spending on non-essential items. One area of concern is health care. If we start by reducing health problems the health care costs would not be so high. So how to do this? Smoking, overweight and no
exercise are the major causes of health problems. The mayor could take the lead and
motivate schools to teach the students and parents to lead healthy lifestyles. I see so many overweight young children that it is pathetic. But just talking will not do any good.
There must be some motivation for both the
parents and children to participate. Maybe someone has some ideas on this subject.
NAPPER
First thing the new administration should do is reconsider its support for the BART project. Nobody’s saying that investing in rapid transit between the East and South Bays is a bad idea, but rather the current proposal is too expensive, gold plated and is on the wrong route missing the north San Jose employment center and the airport. Bay Rail alliance has a better plan here:
http://bayrailalliance.org/southbayrailvision/
Remember June’s Measure A proposed sales tax increase? It went down in flames, an indication that people feel our taxes are high enough. We spend over 1% of sales tax on this county for transportation and just passed a statewide bond as well.
And #2 above is corrent, we need to maintain what we have rather than build more stuff we can’t fix. Let’s fire all those consultants and reopen the public pools. Get City governnment back to basics.
Hugh
There’s so much “leftover” and “clean-up” and “fix-up” work to be done that a mayor could spend 8 years just catching up from the last 20 years of aimlessness.
Fix what needs fixing.
Finish what’s already started.
Restore what’s gone to seed.
Get back on level ground.
Then decide how to move forward.
Downtown, downtown and downtown. Downtown is the most important thing for this city because it’s our living room, and most tourist will value that bigtime. Right now downtown is an embarassment. So that’s the first priority!
I feel the most important thing that needs to be done is to increase the budget for Police, and cut out programs that are not vital right now. I just had a very depressing exchange with Traffic Enforcement last week. In the past few months, a speeder hit a phone poll on my street and sped off. They damaged the pole, costing the city money. New Years eve, my neighbor was driving to the store, and several teenagers, ran out into the street and egged his car, as he was driving by. They called the Police, and no one came out. Last Sunday, my neighbor, her daughter, and grandson were pulling into their driveway, and were hit by a speeder who drove off, without stopping. Both the boy and his mother were badly injured, and taken to the hospital. This street is in a very nice area of San Jose, and has always had a huge problem with speeders.
Every other weekend kids go behind Farnham School and shoot off fireworks, and fire crackers. If you call the Police, they are always too busy elsewhere to come out. Speeders drive up and down this street constantly, and calling the Police doesn’t do any good.
I finally got fed up and e-mailed Council Member Chirco. Her office of course sent me on to Traffic Enforcement etc. The Lt. I spoke with via e-mail told me that they’d look into it in about 3-4 months, even though he agreed this should be considered a priority one case. He said there are not enough Patrol Officers, or Traffic Enforcement Officers to cover San Jose. My fiancé spoke to Ed Chirco, the President of our Neighborhood Association. He said pretty much the same thing. That Traffic Enforcement was understaffed, and too many traffic problems, and crimes go without enforcement.
I’m pretty angry because I pay taxes and want to know why my neighbors had to get injured, and why no one is going to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The kids walking to and from the school should be protected, and I don’t think kids shooting off fireworks should be allowed to burn down the school because the Police are covering downtown. No wonder these law breakers are doing this stuff, they know they can get a way with it. I mean why have laws if they’re not being enforced right?
Parks, overweight children, libraries etc. are important, I agree, but not as important as making sure our streets and neighborhoods are safe. City staff spends too much money on lining their pockets doing studies, and not enough money on actually doing something about the problems we face as a city.
Priority #1 should be Citizen Safety, which means Police and Fire should get priority budgeting and set KSM’s (key success metrics) which, upon being achieved, free up money for lower priority activities.
Priority #2 should be job creation—not in the Big Project Let’s Pour Some Concrete way, but in the creation of scores and scores of small businesses, which are the most effective employment engines around. Small business economic incentives, etc. can play a key role here.
Priority #3 should be Infrastructure Improvements, and should utilize the same KSM’s used above to determine % of budget
I pretty much agree with all the previous posts here so the job of prioritizing these is gonna be tough. One thing that is hopeful is that the attitude and feel at City Hall is one of energy and excitement – something that has been so sorely lacking in recent years. So, I too feel hopeful that some of issues above will be addressed.
If you ask me, it should be Public Safety/Police and Community Centers. Lets get back to the basic services that a city should provide here. Yes, BART and a new stadium are important but not if you can’t take care of even the simplest things for people day to day!
Public Safety needs to be the #1 priority in San Jose. There should be no reason that an officer, or the fire department cannot respond to a call when needed. That is what we rely on City Hall for – knowing we will be safe in our homes, and that public safety personnel will respond when we need them. If they cannot, then we need to readjust our piorities.
I think the city needs to reduce it’s O&M costs. Adobe has shown that with a little investment, you can have enermous returns. What if the City invested $1 million into energy conservation at city facilities? I bet the return would be huge and then the city could afford to staff community centers. Too often I walk into older city buildings and see incandescent lights being used. I’ve asked the city staff at those community centers why they are still using incandescent lights. Their response, “because we don’t have any money budgeted to buy more efficient ones.”
I bet if City Hall turned off it’s lights at night it would save a few bucks.
Develop Better Santa Clara County Light Rail Transit NOT money losing BART
1) buy existing railroad right of way from county line to downtown San Jose for future connection to BART / Light Rail so we do not lose land or in future spend billions to acquire transit right of ways with eminent domain in congested areas that we could buy for millions today
2) build out VTA Light Rail before so that our people can easily and quickly get to existing shopping, airport, jobs and high density destinations to reduce traffic congestion Current VTA light rail is poorly designed, does not go to where people want to go and slow so we pay 85% operating cost from our taxes and few use it
3) revise BART projections to realistic projections numbers. VTA and BART have for decades inflated revenue projections and understated costs to justify projects
VTA in 2006 finally met it’s mid 1980’s political influenced inflated passenger and revenue numbers used to justify Light Rail
BART projections and costs accuracy are even worst as SF Airport expansion and other projects show
4) BART to SJ will cost $8-10 billion or more while mostly benefiting people from other counties and large Silicon Valley companies while local people and small businesses will pay the costs with little benefit
Have wealthy Silicon Valley companies who’s lower cost employees from outside Santa Clara County will be main users ) pay for BART or a lower cost Light Rail connection to BART on the same dedicated right of way ( VTA study Alternative #2 )
5) Who is behind unrealistic BART projections and wanting taxpayers and San Jose’s small businesses to pay for BART which most will never use –
1) generally well meaning but naive career politicians with no transit experience
2) Silicon Valley Leadership Group who’s staff are former political staffers with no transit experts and who’s member companies will benefit at no cost
Question to tell if they believe their inaccurate BART projects
“Will SVLG companies who’s lower cost employees from outside SC County will be the major users be willing to pay for any BART revenue shortfalls or cost overruns?”
SVLG will refuse since they know their BART projections are highly inaccurate BUT taxpayers will be stuck with billions in operating losses for decades if BART to San Jose is approved while not having money for better Santa Clara County transit projects
First and only thing is to STOP bailing out special interest groups that are failing… Because no one cares about Downtown or the Arts groups, The FAILING Private not for profit companies, basically things the city of San Jose has no business getting involved with in the first place or using tax payer money to bail them out with. The City must CUT all ties with these groups in order to try and save face. After the joke of an administration Gonzales had, the tax payers deserve more for their money. This includes getting back to business as a city not a BANK for these groups!!! Hell if the city keeps up the bank routine I’ll be down at City Hall with an excuse that I can’t pay the note on my house and make my self a not for profit organization. Then they will give me FREE money and I will never have to pay it back like the rest of these groups do…. Just food for thought?
#15
The city is not building homes, private industry is. As long as existing home prices remain high this trend will continue. Simple economic law of supply and demand.
16 – But the city approves the housing. No approval, No housing. Private industry can’t build the housing if the city won’t let them.
Stop building so many homes until we invest in whatever it takes to bring more busineses and visitors to San Jose. If we do that, then we will have the money to do all the rest.
#17 and #15
Look, real estate follows employment. Developers don’t build housing in the middle of the deserts. They build where the jobs are. If the city blocks housing then business will relocate in a city where their workers can afford to own or rent. In San Jose where the housing is expensive more builders will build houses until the supply meets the demand. it’s not that difficult to understand, Basic economics. If you want to lose business then
deny builders permits.
Apparently quality of life is not an issue for you? Some people like to have adequate parks and open space, streets that are in good condition, prompt police and fire response times, streets that are not clogged with traffic, decent air quality, etc.
Keep building houses and the quality of life will continue to decline. Not exactly paradise in my book.
Everyone complains about the city not providing this or that without recognizing that Prop. 13 severely limits municipal budgets. Yes, we pay taxes, but clearly not enough to support the level of service we demand.
I don’t disagree about the need to increase funding for police services, but let’s get real about the fire department. They are the cash cow of all city departments. San Jose Fire has 31 fire stations (and building more) and 48 apparatus on duty at any one time. They run approximately 59,000 fire and medical calls annually. Across all of their engines and trucks, that is only 3.36 calls a day. Each apparatus has between 2-4 firefighters staffing it and approximately 85% of their calls are medical, which take an average of 14 minutes a piece. And we’re paying them to be on for 24 hours at a time?
That’s what is so ridiculous about the fire department’s scheduling: they put the same number of resources on the road regardless of whether it is busy or slow. You don’t see police or ambulances doing that. It’s extremely expensive. There is a major waste of efficiency happening in the fire department. If they are running an average of three and a half calls a day in a 24 hour shift and the majority of them take about 14 minutes, I would say that we have a lot of very expensive City personnel sitting around with nothing to do.
Unfortunately, our elected officials treat them like sacred cows and are too afraid to confront the powerful fire unions and look for some money that could otherwise be spent to keep libraries and parks better funded. It’s time to get real and expect some efficiencies everywhere – even from sacred cows.
Like Bridget who posted previously here, I definitely believe that public safety must be a priority in any city that wishes to maintain a sense of security and a decent quality of life for its residents.
However, the phenomenon of the chronic residential speeder is not just a matter of police staffing. Although the SJPD Traffic Unit is not significantly larger than it was back in the 70’s, the population of the city has certainly exploded. San Jose is the 10th largest city in the US but still has one of the lowest officer-to-citizen ratios of any major city.There is however a more insidious factor at work here, one that few decent citizens realize.
Even if officers were to spot the speeder and attempt to stop him, all that the speeder would need to do in order to avoid being held accountable for his irresponsible behavior is to simply continue his flight; just continue his speeding. The officer would have no choice but to let the speeder go.
Unless the officer had a clear, articulable reason to believe that the speeder had committed a violent felony (speeding, vandalism, burglary, auto theft, etc are property crimes and therefore would not qualify) then the officer is mandated by the SJPD Duty Manual to simply let that speeder go.
The speeder (or any other criminal that does not meet the aforementioned conditions) is allowed to break the law and to escape because former police chief’s, most notably former Chief Bill Lansdowne, instituted overly restrictive department policies regarding police pursuits.
The speeder could conceivably be allowed to steal a car, sideswipe several parked cars, drive up over someone’s yard, run over their pet then speed down the street and no SJPD officer would be allowed to continue the chase. The chase would be called off by a sergeant or a lieutenant. More than staffing, this might explain why officers have only a lackluster interest in stopping speeders. What’s the point? If the speeder doesn’t stop, he gets away anyway. If anyone doubts the veracity of this, simply ask to see the SJPD Duty Manual sections regarding police pursuits, or ask any veteran cop. Ask a street cop, a command officer will likley only tell you what he thinks the chief wants him to say.
#18 Business 2a
Since it seems you didn’t do well in Business 1A or Planning 1B, let me give Econ 1A a shot.
If as you say real estate follows employment, please explain why San Jose has a lower percentage of jobs vs. housing than any other city in the Valley. We have supplied the homes yet the employers have chosen to locate in cities with far fewer homes. How would building more homes increase the ratio of employers to homes? We supply the housing yet we don’t get the tax base when more SJ home owners work in other cities. How do you expect to pay for city services by building more homes? We need employers not homes! If you want to learn more about the balance of homes to jobs all you have to do is look at Santa Clara, Palo Alto or Sunnyvale. We don’t bring more employers by increasing sprawl, high rise housing or rezoning industrial property to residential. We do increase our tax base by offering incentives to businesses who locate here. One of those incentives is offering their employees a city that can afford to pay for its parks, streets, museums, schools, police and fire. Your way, building more homes, will only will draw funding away from those assets.
#24 – I understand your main point – that all departments, including the SJFD need to be looked at with an eye toward efficiency and saving money. Yes, the Fire Department can stand some scrutiny, just like all other City Departments.
I remember that discussion about San Jose taking over the ambulances. As I remember it, San Jose did not buy any ambulances; instead, they gave their personnel paramedic training, so that they would not be waiting for an ambulance to arrive when someone was ill. And yes, in some parts of San Jose, it can and does take up to 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The County of Santa Clara contracts with the Ambulance company, and so Ambulances drop patients at Valley Medical Center. For South San Jose, or North San Jose, the response time for an ambulance can be up to 15 minutes, especially if the ambulance on call has just dropped a patient at Valley Medical Center, and needs to drive all the way back out to South San Jose on a call.
Finally, the senario about having to wait 10-15 minutes for an ambulance was repeated to the City Council over and over by many San Jose residents during Council Session, and so, it is not fear-based.
#22 – I wondered how long it would take to see just this kind of response come across… a mere 2 hours and 1 minute! This is exactly the kind of fear-based emotion that keeps our elected officials and city managers from scrutinizing the fire department and the way they do business. If anyone simply suggests changing something about the fire department, you will invariably hear screams that someone will DIE and it will probably be YOUR family. The reality is that it’s just baloney. If you really study the DATA, you will find that they are grossly overstaffed around the clock and should be deploying their resources based on call demand, just like the police department does.
If you also look at the data, you will also see that it does not take a County ambulance 15 minutes to arrive on scene to critical calls in our City. Several years ago, the San Jose Fire Department sold our City leaders a bill of goods and spent millions in taxpayer dollars to buy ambulances in case the County’s ambulance provider was ever late arriving. That way, San Jose firefighters could transport critical patients themselves. Well, the proof is in the pudding: the Fire Department’s ambulances transport patients in their own ambulances about one or two times… a year! And that includes all of the Fire Department ambulances combined. What a great investment. And yet our libraries remain shuttered many days of the week when little kids could be learning to read.
It’s time to stop believing hysterical and fear-based stories about people dying and public safety being sacrificed. Start scrutinizing the fire department for some more efficient service. We deserve it as taxpayers.
#24 – P.S. I also wanted to mention that at every car accident I have seen, the Fire Department beats the Police to the scene, where there is an injury. Secondly, the Fire Department is also responsible for training, neighborhood associations and other groups in disaster prepardness. They are also responsible for fire inspections of buildings and other public structures, and play a part in the planning of new construction where it applies. To assume that the Fire Department serves only one function, is misleading readers. If you recall the Santana Row Fire, the neighbors in the surrounding area were outraged by the shortage of firefighters. Other Cities had to provide mutual aide. I don’t think a repeat of a serious incident like this should be overlooked when discussing the function and importance the fire department plays in our community. The Fire Department also provides services to local businesses in giving safety fairs, and providing fire prevention information. This type of preventative education most certainly does save lives in the event of a fire. The Fire Department provides large companies, like the one I work for, with information on how to plan for, and evacuate the building in case of a fire or disaster. They also do presentations in our schoos to our children about the dangers of playing with matches, shooting off fireworks, and other fire safety issues. Again, I must repeat, that this type of prevention education is vital to our community.
If there are any firefighters reading this column, I would like to have your input on any other services you provide our community.
#25 – thanks Jean for clarifying the main point: you’re right; we need to scrutinize all City departments equally. But my other point was that whenever anyone attempts to cut funding at the Fire Department, we invariably hear cries about how “people will die”, etc. etc. It’s baloney.
With all due respect, you need to get some of your facts straight. San Jose Fire DID in fact spend millions to buy ambulances and they are running around throughout our City as we speak. I believe they call them Star Cars. Just call the Chief and ask. And no, the County ambulance provider does not just transport their patients to Valley Medical Center. They transport to all County hospitals, usually to the hospital of the patient’s choice. Their response times in the City of San Jose are actually some of the fastest in the entire County. If you look at the data, you will see that is correct.
There is no doubt that the Fire Department provides an essential service and they do tons of great work doing prevention and education. The thing that stinks is that they fail to change with the times and contribute their fair share to shrinking government budgets because they will always stand behind their fear-based hysteria about what will happen if you cut any of their services. They need to start being accountable for their efficiency and look at how they do business. I’m tired, as a taxpayer, of paying for a bunch of firefighters to work out all day long and run an average of 3.36 calls a day. It’s just too expensive when we have so many other things that need critical funding.
Funny you should bring up the Santana Row fire because the reason that became such an inferno and the reason the people in the surrounding neighborhood lost their homes was because the Incident Commander called for mutual aid too late. Mutual aid is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a staple of fire department deployment. Unless of course you live in an area like ours, where big egos keep fire chiefs from executing mutual aid agreements with neighboring departments like they should. It’s an example of another efficiency that we aren’t taking advantage of. So many other cities and counties are way ahead of us on this issue. Why not ask for help from time to time from perfectly capable and available engines from other cities that are right across the border from us? Here’s why: City officials will start figuring out that we can do just fine with less and – for God’s sake – we wouldn’t want to become more efficient! Sacred cows, sacred cows…
#21 – I disagree. To make my point, let me say this: God forbid if it was you that needed assistance, the fire department would be the first to respond, and usually an average of 10-15 minutes before an ambulance would arrive. Thank goodness that each shift in each station has firefighters trained as paramedics. I wouldn’t want to see you, or your family waiting an extra 10-15 minutes for an ambulance, and paramedic staff, to assist you. That 10-15 minutes could be a very long time….
Simonvine,
I agree with you about one very important point you’ve brought up and it is this, ANY department that is looked at closely and is held accountable for it’s waste, will always scream they need more money. Have you ever heard any department or program say they have, ENOUGH? I sure haven’t.
I see so much waste in City, County, State, and Federal government that it just makes me sick. Honestly, I ran a non-profit for six years, and if I ever spent money the way the City does, or paid the outrageous fees to supposed experts that the city does, I could never have achieved a thing! Not to mention my donors, and the IRS would have me doing a lot of explaining.
I don’t know if your position on the Fire Department is correct or not, but I do know accountability is sorely lacking at City Hall. I watch the Council Meetings when I can, and the absolute garbage I see City Department Heads pulling on the Council is just shocking to me. They are constantly bringing projects in over budget, programs that cost too much, and do too little, and recommend bids that are off the charts because they don’t want to give a small, less expensive, or lesser known company a chance to do the work. They drag their feet so long on projects that the prices for labor and materials have doubled, by the time they actually bring it before Council.
If you ask and Council Member if they know staff is lying to them, they’ll tell you straight out that they do. But if you ask them why they don’t do anything about it, you get this lame excuse about the City Manager is supposed to handle city staff, we can’t.
Okay, so my question is this, “Why the hay did we vote them in office if they can’t stop the lying, cheating, and back room deals that staff is doing?” Color, me crazy but, in the real world lying to a boss will get you booted out the door! I don’t know about you guys but I’m real fed up with city department heads. So much of what’s wrong in Parks and Recs is directly related to the self-serving staff members running it. I honestly believe that we’d have community centers, good parks etc., if the Council really looked into some of the things they’re doing. It’s a real shame too. I guess if you work at City Hall long enough, and you out live your boss, you’ll eventually end up with his/her job even if you aren’t qualified to do it!
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Click here: MercuryNews.com | 01/21/2007 | Convention deal doesn’t deliver what San Jose agreed to