The first council meeting of the new fiscal year will result in discussing the new budgets cuts that must be made due to Sacramento’s raid of cities’ property tax money. Since San Jose does not want to look at delivering services differently, as Chicago and other cities do, then that leaves us with only one option: cut services to San Jose residents.
For example, my office receives calls and emails on a variety of topics, including street paving, park maintenance, blight and so on. However, there is one thing that almost all people comment about. I agree, this thing is totally out of control. You see it all around San Jose when you traverse its roadways at and stop at every intersection. Sometimes these things are over five feet tall, and they grow bigger by the day.
They come in different colors and varieties and are as attractive as a broken window that never gets fixed.
Well, if you haven’t guessed what this “thing» is yet, its weeds. The subject of weed abatement is so taboo that we would rather have the city look terrible then outsource a simple task of removing weeds. Well, ladies and gentleman, I can tell you that if you call any of your councilmembers to complain about a certain city-owned space being ravaged by tall weeds, that the response time will be really long…really long.
Also in case you weren’t aware, the City of San Jose ripped out nice looking plants in medians throughout the city because the City cannot afford to maintain the plants. Yep, remove the beautiful plants that were paid for by your dollars to let weeds grow in abundance. Welcome to San Jose! Not the type of neighborhood marquee I advocate.
However, I am calling on and recruiting Vigilantes, specifically Weed Vigilantes. If you see a forest of weeds in San Jose, I say do not hold back—tackle it head on and pull them out. Maybe even carry shears or a lopper and cut them down. I know that some of you are wondering if you need a permit to remove weeds since some of them are so big people may think they are trees. I say don’t worry about a permit—you are doing your neighbors and city a favor. Consider yourself deputized. As far as cleaning up, that would be great but if not, just leave them as your calling card as an example to others weeds not to mess around.
San Jose: a place where you pay higher city taxes, pick your own weeds and fund multi-million dollar golf courses. Priceless.
That screaming you hear is the unions protesting non-union citizens cleaning up their city.
Recently I retired from the entertainment business and decided to challange the current gang of 12 at City Hall. Come to http://www.targetcorruption.com and tell me what you need me to do as I run them out of town..
Nate Jaeger
natejaeger.com
Try letting the weeds grow tall in your own frontyard. You’ll get a nasty letter FROM the City telling you to clean them up or they’re gonna cite you.
I’d like to cite the parks workers that I see with my own eyes sleeping in their truck-reading the newspaper in their truck, at the city park where I walk my dog in the morning.
In the old truck they used to have to sleep sitting up but now they’ve got them a brand new cab and a half truck that allows the seat to be reclined. While they sleep comfortably the weeds are growing, the paths around the sandbox are unswept, and there’s trash littering the picnic area.
That’s the beauty of the union. You don’t have to do your job AND you can’t get fired.
On a more positive note, kudos to parks worker Andrew aka “Fuzzy” who I saw rescuing and returning a small dog that had run across Hillsdale Avenue a couple of weeks ago.
Pierluigi,
Are you sure we won’t be arrested or accosted by SEIU members? I’ll bet Nora is choking at the thought of someone other than a union employee pulling weeds on City property.
You have motivated me. I’m getting on my bike, taking my gloves and going to pull some weeds.
The militia groups (check their newsletters) who supported Reed will contribute patrols.
As far as Fallujah militia, Victor will be happy to request automatic weapons for them to use in San Jose, just as long as there are no travel issues when they want to return, tit for tat.
Pierluigi:
A applaud you for talking sense and “stepping over the line.” The only way to change San Jose and return control to the people would be to push a ballot intiative that would require that “X percent” of the General Fund and Operating Fund can only be spent on the delivery of basic city services (as defined by the sponsors of the ballot initiative…AKA the citizens of San Jose).
I believe that people of good will could come together and agree on what these minimum service levels should be. (example….do away with the Cultural Affairs Dept…shift Housing to the County, have the Chamber take over most of the Economic Dev functions, etc).
Whoever would champion such an effort could end up being Mayor of San Jose someday.
Pierluigi,
The City is missing out on a golden opportunity: Just slap a tax on weeds. Then watch how quickly those suckers disappear!
Pierluigi,
In these economic times of diminishing city services, why are there still numerous high density housing projects either being built or in the planning process? As I drive around the city there are what seems thousands upon thousands of high density low income units still being built on any available parcel of land. Also, why is the city still annexing huge areas of county pockets, many which are areas the county is happy to get rid of due to high crime rate and disrepair, for example the Burbank area.
Doesn’t the city council and you have any control over slowing down these projects and annexations? Maybe more of these weeds you complain about would have been taken care of if the city council had said no to developers and the sprawl. I hear you constantly rip on the city employees but you don’t want to take much responsiblity for the poor decicions made by the city council in allowing these unsightly housing projects which have totally diluted city services.
Speaking of Chicago, why would we want to model our city after one that has a reputation for corruption and graft. I never really understood why you and a bunch of our city council went to Chicago on the taxpayer’s money to “study” their model. It seemed like a waste of thousands of our precious dollars, especially when it could have been done on the internet for nothing.
Begora
If we could just keep those Irish from tskin all the city services. Mr. Campbell is right about the paddies, for sure, they are a drain.
Great idea! That’s what I do with graffiti.
One question, though…why is it given that “San Jose does not want to look at delivering services differently?” I suggest that the council members who are willing to consider alternative methods of service delivery keep proposing the alternatives and expose the labor shills for what they are. Perhaps the voters will notice come 2010…
Steve, an excellent question with absolutely no answer… at least from the politicians and developers.
They would have you believe that we’re very near flatline in terms of budget yet, as you point out, there must be plenty of money. Otherwise, why would our fair City be approving thousands of new homes and annexing pockets of County land that are maintained about as well as shanty towns in third-world countries?
I’m at the point where I’m starting to believe that San Jose is a “good place to be from.”
P.O.—#2 has it right when he writes:“Try letting the weeds grow tall in your own frontyard. You’ll get a nasty letter FROM the City telling you to clean them up or they’re gonna cite you.”
YO! what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If the city expects property owners to abate weeds, then the city should do so, as well. And someone needs to check up on the sleepers in city vehicles that he mentions. OH, but you can’t do that, can you? You might piss off the union that has negotiated the sh*t out of you guys supposedly running the show by getting work rules that allow poor performance.
Put it all out to bid. OOPs, The council (not you)would cave just as they did with Barry Swenson who had ONE non-union materials supplier for the library job.
SPINELESS council kow towing to the unions. We taxpayers pay the price of your collective spinelessness.
Forward this to all your colleagues on the council, please. Indeed, forward this entire folder to them so they know how we all feel.
Pierluigi,
San Jose resident desperately need a budget “dashboard” with straightforward graphs showing the current and historical state of the city.
For example, this dashboard would show police officers/firefighters per capita, city revenue per capita, library books per capita, city workers per capita, average fire/police response time, etc…
Currently residents have no easy way to see how the council is performing in terms of providing the most basic services.
This reminds me a little of the episodes of Reno 911 where the neighbors hear about ‘self-policing’ programs like this and starting screwing with one another since they have been ‘deputized’.
I am already picturing neighbors ripping each other’s bushes and trees out, claiming them all to be ‘weeds’.
‘Oh, that was your property?’
The unions always use the same tired argument that job cuts will reduce city services. The other side of the argument is that outsourcing some jobs, like park maintenance, would retain services at a lower cost to taxpayers.
Steve,
Annexations-The state passed legislation for cities to incorporate county pockets without a vote of those residents.
With that said, the settlement with the County of Santa Clara over the proposed Fairgrounds Concert Hall was that San Jose must annex the county pockets on an agreed upon timetable regardless of a recession or booming economic times.
High density affordable housing-I have voted against many housing proposals in my tenure. When it comes to affordable housing I believe we are squeezing in too many people without enough open space. Affordable housing is exempt from many fees and among them are park fees. So as a matter of equity we should have open space for all income groups. In addition without adding new open space we over utilize the existing parks. One proposal where I was the lone no vote was to build 1700 units with only a one acre park.
Chicago-As you may know the majority of the SJ Council has historically voted in favor of policies backed by the labor unions. I hold Chicago as an example since it is a city that has strong ties to Labor yet they outsource city services. Therefore if Chicago can outsource then why not in San Jose. What ever opinions people have about Chicago, they hit a home run with Millennium Park which is privately maintained.
P.O. wrote:“Annexations-The state passed legislation for cities to incorporate county pockets without a vote of those residents.[the ones to be annexed in]”
That’s only half of the equation, capo. Maybe the SJ residents ought to have a vote about whether we want to incorporate those county pockets into SJ, and thus have to pay for services for them. I am not the least bit interested in paying extra taxes to support the residents of the Burbank area, for instance. Leave them where they are, and where they prefer to be anyway—in the unincorporated county.
You went on to say:” So as a matter of equity we should have open space for all income groups” Sounds good; but I’d bet the farm that the vast majority of park users are indeed poorer folks. Rich folks can take trips. Middle class folks have back yards to party in, or their friends do. Parks are mainly inhabited by poor folks, and in some areas of SJ, almost exclusvely the homeless. So, the low income housing folks should actually pay MORE for parks, since they use them the most. Oh, but that doesn’t fit in with our new and improved wealth redistribution model espoused by Pelosi & Obama.
PO….you state you would rather San Jose did business more like Chicago, which is arguably one of the most corrupt big cities in the United States. What part of the Chicago model would you have San Jose implement? The Chicago model has created a situation filled with bribery and graft. While outsourcing of jobs to the private sector, sounds good in theory, it relies on the notion that there will be no backdoor deals given to contractors as a payback for a political favor, which is obviously unrealistic. Once a contract is granted, who from the city will oversee and can be trusted that the work is being done properly, or will a city official charged with this responsibility be tempted to look the other way for a gift or favor? That is exactly what has happened in Chicago. Who is foolish enough to believe that backroom deals don’t dictate government policy, and which companies in turn will be rewarded these contracts for city services. Look at the sprawl that has been built on every square foot of available land by developers, rather than industry that would help our tax base.
The ultimate example of how systemically corrupt Chicago/Illinois is can be demonstrated with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this year trying to bribe money out of candidates seeking the open U.S. senate seat. Not the kind of city government I want for San Jose.
If there are weeds growing out of control, they are just keeping tempo with thousands of new housing units being built, also seemingly out of control. The higher the weeds, the deeper their roots entertwined between our city and the developers.
If Chicago was so successful in outsourcing city services, they wouldn’t be looking at a defecit of almost half a billion dollars this year. Also, if we are to compare San Jose to Chicago lets look at how many police officers they have. Chicago has over 13,000 police officers for a city of 3 million, while San Jose has about 1,300 officers for 1 million people. Using Chicago standard the SJPD should have over 4,000 officers, so the department is almost 3,000 officers understaffed here in San Jose.
Maybe we should stick closer to home and see how Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have been so successful in providing great city services and having a solid tax base. Also, their city council members serve part time and receive only a small stipend for their expenses. Maybe we could eliminate millions paying our city council members and find citizens who are willing to do the job and have their expenses reimbursed and receive no salary at all.
Maybe Chicago has more police because they pay them less? Maybe they have more police because they save money by outsourcing?
Sorry Winchester,,,,where is Chicago saving money by outsourcing when their deficit is almost half a billion dollars? Outsourcing is not the panacea Pier claims it is, and it will create an entirely new system where backroom deals and kickbacks will dictate how the contracts are awarded. That is exactly what has happened in Chicago.
Steve,
All the valley tech companies outsource non core services to save money and not carry the burden of non valued employees. Government should do the same at all levels especially with pensions the tax payer cannot afford.
There is a big difference between the public and private sector outsourcing. The motive in the private sector is profit and it is closely overseen. The government motive does not involve profit, so those that are giving and overseeing the contracts are much more tempted to be motivated by what will get them reelected or some other type of bribes. It has worked here in the valley with private companies, albeit at other high social costs. It has not worked in Chicago, where corruption is rampant due to how these contracts are awarded. Just check out some of the major news networks.
24,
I think you missed my point. Chicago was used as the example for outsourcing jobs. My point was that it has not worked in Chicago, therefore do not use Chicago as an example of what we should become. I pointed to both the cities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale as examples we should follow. They have grown their tax base and provide excellent city services for their citizens.
21
We agree to disagree. I think your mindset is unrealistic. You ask government to do everything by hiring more police every week on this website but do not provide a source of funding. Not paying the city council a salary as you suggest would just lead to more bribery and graft by the unions and it would be a drop in the bucket to covering the actual cost of new police hires.
My concern has always been the long term cost of pensions and hiring city employees who are not core like this weeks example of weed abatement.
Wincester,
You state that I “ask government to do everything by hiring more police”. Funny, I don’t ever remember stating that, nor is that what I believe. The police chief for the city of San Jose has stated the department is at least 500 officers short. I would just like to see our city remain relatively safe.
I disagree with you that unpaid councilmembers would be more dishonest. I think it would weed out “professional politicians” and those who view this as a paycheck. Most of the smaller cities in the valley pay their council members only a stipend, and from what I have seen they are pretty darn good places to live.
The amount we pay our councilmembers is not a “drop in the bucket” as you state. It is a pretty significant amount, plus benefits, plus a hefty vehicle stipend.
I don’t have the answer to new sources of funding. In retrospect, a billion for a city hall, millions for a car race, millions for golf courses, would have all have gone a long ways towards a few more officers.
Steve,
Don’t be so negative. When the laid off workers form their own companies, and begin working for themselves, don’t tell me they will not take pride in their work.
Many former city-workers have have formed companies to compete in projects. And remember, all City Departments have the ability to bid on all outsourced jobs.
Here’s a good read for you, particularly the local section:
http://tinyurl.com/pleasereadsteve
The following places are privatizing services or had proposals to do so:
LA
Indianapolis
Milwaukee
Kansas City
King City
Novato
Des Moines
Hollywood, FL
Pembroke Pines, FL
Sunrise, FL
Jacksonvlle, FL
Tampa, FL
Charlotte County, FL
Detroit, MI
Royal Oak, MI
Macomb County, MI
Toledo, OH
Washing County, NY
East Hampton, NY
Falmouth, MA
Brookline, MA
Alameda, CA
I’ve got to stop, the list goes on. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. Maybe later, maybe sooner.
As for overseeing the contract, for many things that could be outsourced, the public will. For example parks. They must be kept in good shape, weed free, grass mowed. Complaints will be an indicator.