City Hall Diary
This week at council we discussed the upcoming 2008-2009 budget process.
The budget for San Jose is a year-round process tracking the revenue that comes into the city, like sales tax and construction and conveyance tax (C and C), and expenditures that come from the General Fund (non-restricted money), or capital expenditures (restricted money) like building new libraries.
The city’s budget is a topic that takes a considerable amount of time to master. To Mayor Reed’s credit, he is the first mayor who started a community process that helped share information regarding the budget process and the complexities that accompany it. For example, in January 2007, Mayor Reed held the Neighborhood Associations Priority Setting session, where neighborhood association presidents and others had a voice in the budget process. In January 2008, the mayor held the same meeting and went over the consultants report regarding budget options for San Jose.
During the 2008 meeting, the audience was asked to rank the choices that the consultants report came up with. I attended this meeting and had mixed feelings. I felt that our city staff was better versed on the topics then the consultant and that four hours is not enough time for the budget.
In addition, I also attended two of the mayor’s Budget Shortfall Taskforce meetings (similar to Mayor Hammer’s New Realities Taskforce in 1995) as well as three of labor’s community budget working group meetings. More people offering new ideas in the budget process is a good thing.
A broader discussion of the budget, where we can do a deep dive into ideas brought by the public, will be on the Rules agenda on March 5. This would allow the residents to understand the trade-offs of budget policy and allow more time to discuss good ideas.
Scenario:
There is a budget meeting at City Hall that you decide to attend with your neighbor. Your neighbor does not follow local government; he just knows that he pays his taxes and complains about potholes and hears about Little Saigon on TV. Knowing that both of you are attending and that you have two different levels of budget knowledge, what would you both want to learn from the meeting?
Do you want Budget 101?
Scholarly discussion?
PowerPoint mania?
Q & A?
Debate team?
Deep dive on only a few topics?
We will always be in a “budget crisis” because any year we have a surplus, City Hall can’t resist throwing the money around, adding new programs and boosting salaries and benefits. Then when revenues are down we hear the inevitable whining about the “structural deficit”.
It’s a never-ending cycle when you have a governing body is comprised of people that all have a “D” after their name.
Yeah, I think the public should take more interest in the budget than in any other topic. It would be enlightening to see a detailed breakdown of precisely what the City spends the money on.
-A report that showed exactly how many employees are in each department along with their salaries and benefits.
-A list of consultants paid by the city and how much they were paid.
Budgets aren’t really that complicated unless there’s a bunch of bamboozling going on.
Pierluigi,
There has been a lot of outreach on the budget this year, and will be some more.
You have scheduled your own community budget meeting for March 5 for the constituents you represent, so you can be better informed as the priorities of those you represent, and they can be informed of the realities the city faces.
Why don’t the other councilmembers do the same thing in their districts? I’ve just checked their web pages and no one has organized a meeting such as yours. They should be doing this type of outreach to the community. Where do they get their input on how to make budget decisions?
I would want some basic background on the budget and spend more time on a few issues vs. many. I would like to know what is the total rate of increase in base payroll and benefits over the last 10 years.
Having meetings is great however I work late most nights and cannot attend. In the end we elect all of you council people to make decisions on our behalf. You need to use your own judgement many times outside what a few people tell you at meetings. At a meeting I would want the straights facts about the budget like a CFO would deliver. Also please pave the Alameda before you spend money on an election for little Saigon.
#2-
It appears to me that they make their budget decisions based on the desires of everybody BUT the homeowners. My opinion has NEVER been solicited by my council “rep”.
Two examples of wasting money:
1) Landscaping at the Coleman Avenue entrance to San Jose Airport.
2) Public art at the proposed South Police Station.
Why must Forrest Williams always choose the most expensive option? Maybe because it is not his money?
#5
I agree with you there is a difference in what San Jose homeowners want and what our city council does. you ever channel surf to channel 26 and catch a council meeting? I don’t know where the public speakers come from but they are not my neighbors.
#5
My opinion has NEVER been solicited by my council “rep”.
Nobody is stopping you from sending “your opinion” to your council rep. Nobody is stopping you from setting up a meeting with your council member, or a staff member. Nobody is stopping you from attending any public event with your council member.
It is not their job to ask every person what “their opinion” is on any matter.
And, it not their obligation to vote for whichever side has the most screaming yahoos in the audience.
#7- It is natural to assume that those who take the trouble to attend council meetings and to lobby the Council are those that have the most to gain. The biggest players are developers, hi-tech corporations, and public employee unions.
We rely on the City Council to use their imagination to understand what Joe Taxpayer would say if he were there and to give that unvoiced opinion due consideration.
Special interest groups are quite adept at presenting a compelling case for being the recipient of some tax-funded program. The problem is that the City Council finds it all too easy to say “yes” since they never take the trouble to find out what their “constituents” think.
Pierluigi—“Dive deep”?? Community meetings=
any change in the way things are done? Study arcane and complicated formulae presented by staff? A million meetings by every sensate being in the neighborhood would change nothing. Approach it differently: to use an analogy, approach it like a trip to Lunardi’s veggie section: evaluate the produce, check the price, check your checkbook. Don’t guess at the melon you paid for only to find it tastes like cucumber. Lunardi wins, you lose—even if you schlepp it back and get your dough—using your time and gas. Check, i.e., evaluate ALL employees, especially ones at the top; they do the most damage if their job is not to make sure their hundreds of employees are functioning. What IS the evaluation of all city employees? Is it a budgeted item? When was it done last. Is it meaningful? How about the WASTE LIST? Where is it? How can the community see it? Start with the 2M dollar golf course net. And the money-losing golf courses.
Sell the suckers and put the proceeds in the General Fund—or will SEIU let you, since their employees are on that payroll? (And how come Phaedra is on the Hayes Mansion Board—another money losing proposition with lots of employees that must be paid—and even compliant Forrest can’t be on the Central Labor Council Board?) How can there not be a permanent structural budget deficit if the fox is guarding the henhouse on Santa Clara St.?
It’s all about spending money on job-generating “cultural” benefits for the citizens, coffer-emptying benefits—like the libraries
that provide construction jobs—but no books, staff or hours for the public who use them. How do Chuck’s community budget meetings get past all this chicanery? They make the citizenry think they’re being listened to. Not a very big step up from the way Gonzo/Cindy ran things.
George Green
I am an employee and I can tell you that literally millions is spent on consultants each year. The company that did the budget report is compromised of former city manager’s and the city manager’s office always uses them. They never have any bright ideas and they never think out of the box. They re-state the obvious or trot out the same tired ideas. As usual, they want to cut the raises of the lowest paid workers and not touch the people making 100K or more. The last go round they cut lower paying positions and created higher paying ones. Now, there are not enough people doing grunt work and things don’t get done or get done by highly paid people who either shouldn’t be there in the first place, or at least doing something to earn their high salary. I’m all for employees and retirees kicking in more for their insurance and more for the co-pay. Everyone else has to, why are we so special? The retirees are lucky to have the benefit of group insurance at all; again most people do not receive that benefit so they just need to kick in a little more.
Bottom line: way too much mid-upper management, way, way to many consultants.
To answer Councilmember Oliverio’s question…I would like to learn the impact of the Redevelopment Agency on the budget.
From Chapter 3, Tax Increment Diversion http://www.redevelopment.com/norby/ch03.htm
“Cities themselves are impacted by redevelopment diversions. That part of the tax increment that would have gone to the cities’ general fund (averaging 11%) is lost, and can now be used only by redevelopment agencies. Thus, there is now money to build auto malls and hotels, but less for police, fire fighters and librarians. Cities cannot use redevelopment money to pay for operations, public safety or maintenance, which are by far the largest share of municipal budgets.”
http://www.redevelopment.com/norby/toc.htm
Is this a valid and factual argument? Is this the case in San Jose? Are revisions needed to existing State laws related to Redevelopment Agencies that would help cities balance budgets?
Is Redevelopment helping, hurting, or neutral (or is that another topic)?
#12 asks about the RDA. I’d like to ask why there is no citizen-oversite committee for the RDA? Why don’t the citizens get the chance to weigh in on RDA projects and policies…such a committee could operate much like the Planning Commission does. Why don’t the citizens of San Jose have the right to elect the members of the RDA Board…Who says that the RDA Board must consist only of councilmembers? (Why can’t we have citizens on the Board?)
More importantly…Why does the VTA (another unelected body) receive more of the sales tax pie than the city? (VTA gets 1.25 cents…city gets 1 cent!) Why not shift these shares for the next five years? (The VTA buys and sells real estate for a future BART line that may or may not ever happen, while our city continues to sink).
Pete Campbell
Actually, Pete, BART is run by the Irish mob, and I think you have the same issues with gypsies, Romanians, Paraguyans, Italians, and other people from Southern Europe coming to your neighbohood.
#13
All council members reach out to their constituents. They have meetings, and other events, around their district for residents to attend.
However, that is not good enough for some people. Some people think they are so important that their council member should directly contact them for help on any issue.
#8 Bluefox
Simple question: Would YOU prefer a councilmember
A. who reaches out to their constituents
or
B. who makes you come to them?
An FYI for those in D3 – our council member Sam Liccardo created a Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG). Representatives from the D3 neighborhoods have been meeting for the past year+ to set neighborhood priorities and then advise Sam accordingly on how to budget his dollars, which I believe roll up into the larger SJ budget.
The D3 NAG is a public meeting, and everyone is welcome. We meet the 3rd Wednesday of each month, usually at City Hall. (Anyone interested in more info, lemme know.)
Kudos to Sam for being so inclusive. I hope this inspires other council members to do something similiar.
Tina,
Sam is awsome, he even gave us his password so we can check his email for him!
#8 BlueFox,
Simply said,” Public money should be spent to serve and protect the public, not enrich private interests”.
#11
The consultants that did the budget report should refund the money back to the city of San Jose. Garbage in, garbage out.
These “community outreach” meetings are so much bullsh*t, like when we go to a Tuesday council meeting to comment on an “upcoming” vote on an issue that has already been decided behind closed doors. It’s a bullshi*t bone the mayor and council throw to us peons to make us think they really care what we think.
I just got back from 2 weeks abroad and read the 2 editions of the WG resident that came during my vacation. Here is a sampling of the positions we do NOT need, as mentioned in various articles in just those 2 editions of a neighborhood rag:
SJ has Deputy Director of Information Technology. That implies at least one deputy director, plus a director, and I’d bet a couple of asst. directors or asst. deputy directors—all of whom probably earn six figures plus benefits (another 50% of salary minimum) to do WHAT? Botch the entire Taj Gonzal IT infrastructure!!
We have an entire DEPARTMENT overseeing tree removal on PRIVATE PROPERTY. Ya gotta get a permit. We pay people to decide whether we can remove a tree on our own property, but the city has no money to trim city trees, like along Lincoln Avenue Business Dist. Why no $$ to trim city trees? Because we pay bozos to sit around and decide what trees we can remove on OUR OWN PROPERTY.
Oh, and if you have tree “issues” there are THREE DIFFERENT phone numbers to call to get redress. Each number is for a different dept., and one probably has to do a hit-and-miss to get the right one. All #s must be staffed.
PO—do you listen to what we say here, or do you just post and go away feeling very self-satisfied? Several questions have been posed to you over the months in response to your posts, yet you have failed to answer a single one of them on this blog.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—you post here and no other councilperson does. That’s a plus $ U. But do you read our responses? Why don’t you respond? P.O—phone home!!!
The council is having hearings (PLURAL) to decide whether to allow WG Biz. Dist to lower the banners on Lincoln, since the untrimmed city street trees make the exisiting ones INVIVISBLE. HEARINGS??!! Trim the trees, guys, and it becomes a non-issue. OOPS, I’m sorry. There’s no $$ to trim those trees, since its all spent staffing the 3 phone #s so that the tree Nazis in WG can call and complain and get the mayor and 2 councilmembers and the police chief out on Willow Street to moan about some unsightly trees removed from a property by its owners.
Do people automatically become stupid once elected to public office?
The RDA has at least one Assistant Director of Neighborhood and Business Development. There must be at least one deputy, as well. How much admin. support for these highly paid folks? Business develops best when left alone by govt., and when as few roadblocks as possible are put in their way.
Thed SJRDA also has “development officers” What in hell do they do to earn their pay and benfits?
There is a proposal to hire an “Urban Forest Manager” for the city. Doesn’t Rhonda what’s-her-name of Our Urban Forest, or whatever, do that stuff privately, at no cost to taxpayers? Why must we hire a new person to duplicate what the private sector does, at high wages, high benefits, and with an admin staff to push paper around?
Wanna know why we have a structural deficit, PO? Read above. Id’ bet there are at least 500 other such useless sinecure jobs on SJ payroll. Want to cut the deficit? Fire them all, and let them get real jobs.
THAT’S WHY WE HAVE A STRUCTURAL DEFICIT.
Those examples are from just 2 weeks of WG Resident stories about WG. Imagine citywide.
The public needs a place to go to find out exactly who does what and how much they are paid. Just reading the budget document gives one no specific info. We are kept in the dark, because if we were able to readily access all the waste in just SJ, we’d throw you all out on your dead ass*s.
The only meeting we need is another Boston Tea Party.
#8 said—“Nobody is stopping you from setting up a meeting with your council member”, True enough. But has your councilmember ever met with you? Can you ever get past the third assistant deputy director for your councilmember? If so, you have a lot more clout than the rest of us. How much did you contribute to her/his campaign? Councilmembers today have as much or more insulation from their constituents as Congressmembers had a mere 25 years ago.
Employee #11 is spot on. I heard some school board honcho on the radio today talking about how the governator’s cuts in education would cut programs. Why is it that programs get cut, and not the six-figure dildos in the office of the superintendent who contribute NOTHING to educating our kids? They cut librarians, custodians, music programs, etc; while saving the jobs of the six figure per year nothings with the titles who add ZERO value to the education system.
I believe that having a community meeting about the budget is the best approach to understanding a society’s needs and wants. This approach is rare and greatly appreciated because most council representatives do not take the time and effort to listen to the community. The budget must take into consideration the whole city at large. Analyze each department and ask; is each department utilizing their funds correctly?
Residents like me understand the social issues that surround the city. All we ask for are the simple things in life: Safety, common curtsey from developers, paved roads, light fixtures that work, and the upkeep of Community Centers. We ask for a safe environment that we as people can reside in without discrimination, prejudices, or judgment of others that may cause harm.
The city can spend Millions of Dollars on what to name a business complex, but they spend minimal on repaving roads, fixing lights or other issues that may help our city. For example the money can be on our educational system (create reading programs) or help preserve a park, or natural habitat.
It is no one’s fault but us as residents and community leaders to not see surpassed the issues that can not help a society as a whole.
Pierluigi,
I have attended many of the budget meetings,steak holder meetings at City hall. It would be nice if all important options were selected and voted on by the Council and City staff. Instead the consultants selects what they percieve to be the important subjects and those subjects only get voted on. The results of the hand voting are only perdictable, more of the same.
The consulting firm again is a voice from the past administrations, tied to the same insiders and the same lobby people we all know. So… nothing changes.
Do we hire the award winning consultants that turned Portland, Oregon around or the team of consultants whose track record put Austin, Texas on the top as another model “Smart Growth City” to moldl ourselves after. No, we go back in time to the same people that helped this city become this hudge bedroom community it is today. A city starved for jobs and revenue. Jobs and revenue that produce funds to pay for city services like police, infrastructure improvements, relief from grid lock.
City officials from around the USA travel to Portland and Austin to observe the two successs stories.