With San Jose’s budget shortfall coming in at far less than the $80 million expected, the City Council will defer any action next Tuesday to declare a fiscal emergency. New projections put the shortfall at around $25 million. However, Mayor Chuck Reed still wants an election next year to reform employee pensions. The preferred election date for the ballot measures would be June 5, 2012, according to a memo sent out Thursday by Reed and councilmembers Pete Constant, Rose Herrera, Sam Liccardo and Madison Nguyen.

With many people rushing off for Thanksgiving last week, the Police Officers Association came out with a surprising announcement that George Beattie, the union president, was retiring from his POA position. Beattie, a lieutenant with the San Jose Police Department, has never been a fan of the media, so he didn’t give an interview in the Mercury News’ report. But his successor, Sgt. Jim Unland, who was previously vice president of the POA, was quoted as saying that negotiations with the city over pension reform are still proceeding “one day at a time.”

A report released Monday by the High-Speed Rail Authority reiterates the authority’s consistent argument: A tunnel and underground station will not work in San Jose. Business and neighborhood groups worry that the proposed elevated structure will be a huge and unsightly addition to the cityscape. What the report does not say — yet it is being discussed internally by HSRA officials — is that the city’s advocacy of a tunnel option could push the $98 billion high-speed rail line to take an alternative path.

The City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday to decide whether or not it should sell land to owners of the Oakland A’s. The plan is to sell the property for $6.975,227, which is 36.5 percent of the total ballpark site’s current value. The theory, according to ballpark advocates, is the economic benefit of a ballpark would outweigh some combination of corporate, retail offices and housing.

Some people said it was only a matter of time until Anthony Batts would leave his post as Oakland’s chief of police following his public and unsuccessful bid to become the head of the San Jose Police Department. Those people were right. Earlier this week, Batts offered the city of Oakland his resignation.

San Jose’s incubator program will not be audited as Councilmember Sam Liccardo was hoping, meaning questions about how millions of dollars were spent, or misspent, will likely go unanswered. The Rules and Open Government Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to dismiss Liccardo’s request that city staff look into the business start-up programs that were funded by the Redevelopment Agency and continue to be managed by San Jose State University’s Research Foundation.

Tuesday’s City Council meeting wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for San Jose’s thriving medical marijuana industry. But the council’s decision to implement a land use and regulatory program starting Oct. 27 will be a major step toward a cap of 10 collectives within city limits. Collective supporters are now working to gather signatures to put together a referendum that would repeal the ordinances.

Five public employee unions in San Jose put forward a pension reform proposal Tuesday that they estimate will save the city $467 million during the next five years. The unions represent police officers, firefighters, architects, engineers, middle managers and maintenance supervisors.

Tuesday’s City Council meeting will feature a status report on the city’s general fund, but no action will be taken in regards to declaring a “fiscal and service level emergency.” Consideration of that item has been deferred until after Oct. 31.

San Jose’s city council established guidelines Tuesday for the city’s medical marijuana regulatory program. As expected, the council stuck to many of its earlier ideas—a cap of 10 collectives, on-site cultivation of cannabis only and strict zoning regulations—and will move toward finalizing its decision at a Sept. 27 session. The city’s program would then go into effect a month later.

Sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, better known simply as 9/11. There will be memorial events held here in San Jose, throughout the nation and even outside the United States, as the 3,000 men, women and children who lost their lives that day from terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93 are honored. Every generation has its “where were you?” moment, when something monumental happened and in the blink of an eye a person can recall exactly what he or she was doing. That tragic day 10 years ago is exactly that moment for many Americans.

The hot topic at Tuesday’s City Council meeting will be medical marijuana, and a soon-to-be administered regulatory program that has critics on all sides. While the Planning Commission has recommended a more lax approach to the council’s direction, the city’s administration appears unwilling to budge.

By the looks of a flyer that was circulating in the state’s capitol this week, the D7 Crew ain’t nothing to mess with. In reality, though, the D7 Crew is a group of freshmen Democrat and Latino State Assembly members whose end-of-session party invitation rose “Capitol eyebrows,” according to a headline in the Sacramento Bee’s political blog, Capitol Alert. The group of Assembly members includes San Jose’s Nora Campos.

Is San Jose really on its way to becoming known as Sin City? Sgt. Jim Unland, vice president of the police union, recently made that claim in a post on the San Jose Police Officers’ Association’s blog site, Protect San Jose. Mayor Chuck Reed dismissed the moniker, but he acknowledged that San Jose needs more police officers. Meanwhile, Police Chief Chris Moore is under fire for the 140% increase in San Jose’s year-to-date homicide rate as well as his frequent trips outside of the city. Could it be that almost everyone in public safety is now losing the public relations battle?

The City Council is expected to finalize the city staff’s Top 10 priorities for the current fiscal year at Tuesday’s meeting. With three high-priority spots potentially vacant on the city’s workplan, several councilmembers have submitted ideas on what they think should take a front seat.

San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore has cut loose two federal immigration agents just two months after being heavily criticized by community groups for his decision to bring in the agents to combat gang violence. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly helped the city’s METRO unit arrest 215 gang members during the time they were here.