City Hall Diary
The city council spent 12 hours on “Budget Tuesday” last week. Here are three of the topics we covered.
Budget:
It was the end of a long budget process and I lived through it. We had tough choices to make. San Jose is involved in many things—some questionable and others necessary. I think we need to consider starting fresh with a clean slate by making “core” city services—sewer, public safety and land use—our first priorities.
We need to fully fund these core services first and then move on from there to roads, libraries, attorneys, and accounting (collect revenues/pay bills), followed by code enforcement, parks and community/senior centers. Perhaps San Jose should consider dropping things that are not core, such as taxpayer subsidized golf.
I know that folks might think I am “Mr. No Fun” because I am upfront about the fact that there are tradeoffs we have to make. Casual fiscal responsibility, when it’s convenient, does not cut it. We must have a sober discussion on tradeoffs. Why not have high ratings for our core services rather than being average at many things?
Traffic Calming:
Last year I chaired the traffic calming meetings in an effort to gather community feedback on how best to update San Jose’s policy. We had a meeting in each council district, shared the policy twice at the Transportation and Environment Committee, and held a final community meeting before the council unanimously passed the new policy last Tuesday. Two of the important changes to the policy are partnering with schools and neighborhoods adjacent to schools in an effort to make the streets in these areas safer, and allowing private funding for traffic calming devices. The entire policy was revamped and I encourage you to check it out.
Inclusionary Housing:
Wordsmithing was at its best when “inclusionary” housing was discussed last week. I was starting to get dizzy with the constant back and forth about literally one word. I have given this issue considerable thought and, as a result, it is not one I support the way it is presented today. In the end, I want what is best for San Jose and its residents. I don’t believe building housing on every parcel is in anyone’s best interest, nor do I think raising the prices for first-time home buyers to subsidize others that earn less money is fair either. San Jose has done more then its fair share for both market rate housing and affordable housing. I am not alone. Councilmember Pyle did a good job by offering an alternative. I supported her, along with my colleagues Cortese and Constant.
San Jose’s structural deficit isn’t over yet, so stay tuned as this week’s council meeting should also be a long one.
I have to include code enforcement in the same category as what you refer to as core services, sewer, public safety and land use.
In East San Jose, code enforcement is the only tool we have that is reliable, and works, in cleaning up this neighborhood. For whatever reason, many residents feel that since they live in East San Jose they can do whatever they want, and if it was not for code enforcement this neighborhood would be in even worse shape.
My gut feeling is by having code enforcement keeping many residents honest, it is helping make the neighborhood safer, and certainly improves the quality of life for everyone.
Pierluigi:
Of course you’re right, that the city should focus on “core” city values and basic city services. The city should adopt the KISS methods…keep it simple stupid!
In tems of traffic calming, the only effective method of traffic calming is to bust people for reckless driving and speeding, particularly around schools. QUESTION: Why doesn’t the police dept send a cop out to every school in the morning drop off period, and again at the afternoon pick-up?
Pete Campbell
Mr Campbell (#4),
Although there is nothing wrong with the idea of having a police officer monitoring school traffic at drop-off and pick-up times, the reality is that even if the department wasn’t routinely cutting beats, at current staffing levels there are not enough cops to cover the schools. In truth, there never has been. However there is a solution, one that does not involve additional cost and was standard operating procedure back when schools were led by no-nonsense, responsible administrators (as opposed to today’s sensitive, compassionate fluff balls), and that is for the school staff to get out there before and after school and call attention to dangerous practices, chastise reckless children, and lay down the law to parents driving irresponsibly.
Returning to such a practice will make traffic safer around schools and possibly give school administrators a valuable heads-up into problems of negligent parents or unfit home conditions (e.g. mom or dad showing up drunk, unrelated male picking up a pre-teen girl, etc). Besides, it will give the school administrators some much needed practice in being assertive.
#2 Hugh:
Using your logic, the City should also unload parks, soccer/baseball/softball fields, pools, the library, and any other recreational use location owned by the city that does not pay taxes yet utilizes public funds.
Do you dislike golf and prefer it be eliminated, or do you have a more altruistic belief and wish all city-owned recreational use lands (soccer/softball/baseball fields, parks, pools, libraries, etc..) be privatized or bulldozed for strip malls? Can’t really agree with either proposal but at least the latter is less hypocritcal.
You are absolutely right about housing. I, for some strange reason, don’t feel like donating a percentage of my mortgage to others as punishment for going to graduate school.
Keep fighting the good fight PO. Chirco was being quite hypocritical when she asked you if you consulted your constituents, before proposing that your library to close one day a week so you could keep public safety workers available to serve the public. She has yet to ask us what we want on anything in D9! The few times she’s gone to her constituents, not us of course but her buddies, she even ignored their concerns and objections on certain issues, saying that she, as the Council Person for D9 must make certain choices that sometimes her constituents won’t like. A bit hypocritical isn’t it?
Inclusionary Housing:
First of all, I want someone to define “affordable” for me. Even in rentals the term “affordable” escapes me. When you must earn three times the rent, per month to qualify, then I don’t see how you can call a rent of $1,200.00 a month affordable.
Secondly, there are low-income seniors, and low-income persons with disabilities that should be given the opportunity to buy a home too. Being elderly or disabled is not something they can help.
Unfortunately “Inclusionary, Affordable Housing,” is going to be used to keep developers pockets lined, and the city getting revenues.
As to Traffic Calming: I’ll believe it when I see it. I attended one of the meetings and I can tell you this, for two weeks after the meeting we had lots of Police patrolling our neighborhood. After those two weeks were over, we are right back where we started.
Hugh,
I understand your logic perfectly. I agree. We must prioritize our needs, and fun things come later. If neighborhoods want a golf course, let them pay for it themselves, or have the developers include them at their cost, not the taxpayers.
Frustrated Finfan,
Great idea. I think if the schools started leaning on these selfish parents, and crossing guards started taking down license numbers things might be different. If our so called “Neighborhood Association in D9,” could find the time to actually do something other than sit in meetings, they might assist by organizing the neighborhood to volunteer at the schools to help stop these speeders, and parking violators.
Pierluigi,
I believe your positions on the budget reflect the majority of the people in this city.The public has been talking up the need for those whom manage this City to fully restore “Core Services” before we go on to any other luxuries the City officials and their lobby friends wish to persue.
San Jose has done more than it`s fair share of housing when compared to other Santa Clara County Cities.Meanwhile our infrastructure is falling apart.We need desperatly to allow our infracture problems to catch up with housing.
No fun? The Sports non for profit group that recieves City money and inturn turns around and uses that same money to pay lobbyist to lobby the City to fund thrir activities should be looked at. Maybe they could become self funding. Maybe they should go out and seek another source of funds other than the City of San Jose.We fund them while we cut Core services and other necessary items.
Sports,like the Downtown Races that cost us Millions of dollars and, spending money on Golf Cources so far just in 2007-2008 topped well over $40million plus, all the other indirect costs for sports the City management doesn`t tell us about that just come out of the general fund needs to be cut.
Someone recently suggested one of these Golf cources be converted to sports fields for our “childrens use” for sports like Soccer, base ball, football and basket ball and maybe an activity center that keeps our children busy and off the streets where they end up joining gangs.
Most big cities of our size have gotten out of Golf Cource management business.Most of them have turned around a loss to manage these golf cources to a profit generating city assett.There are all kinds of success stories on line.Arnold Palmer Golf Management Co, specializes in the management of public owned golf cources.
We need to take a serious look at how much is spent by the City on the lobby group
that lobby`s our city officials for City money for Golf and Sports car racing. Maybe it`s time this group supported themselves?
Exactly why does the City own golf courses? they should be sold ASAP and either become taxpaying businesses or redeveloped into something that will pay more taxes. The city needs to unload the golf courses, pronto.
So McEnery gets a sweetheart $6 million deal from Council and redevelopment then San Jose explains how it is a great deal for taxpayers
Business as usual – insiders get tax subsidies and taxpayers get new higher taxes
Oliverio you will never be able to run for any higher position because you speak your mind. Don’t you notice your colleagues always use safe ambiguous words. You vote how residents feel which is odd since your supposed to get elected and sit in an ivory tower.
Thank you for your stance on affordable housing. Other cities need to pull their own weight.
I THINK I like what I’m hearing from Pierluigi. I know I would include sewer as a priority but I’m not sure what’s covered under “public safety” or “land use”.
I believe proper maintenance of roads, sidewalks, street trees, and parks should be prioritized. These infrastructure elements are all city property but the City has fobbed off maintenance onto homeowners and volunteers.
I would list code enforcement and libraries as core. Parks you can outsource so it should not be considered core.
Pierluigi,
The following is a quote from a Mercury article a few days ago, ” Aside from the tax measures, the council voted 6-5 to consider a charter amendment that would tie council member salaries to a percentage of the pay of state Superior Court judges. Currently, a five-member citizen commission recommends pay for the mayor and council members, who then vote to approve it.
If the proposed change were in place now, the mayor’s $115,000 salary would jump to more than $143,000, and council members’ $82,500 pay would be more than $107,000.
Joining Reed in opposition to the proposal were Cortese and council members Forrest Williams, Sam Liccardo and Judy Chirco.”
How did you vote on this issue, and if you voted to consider the possibility of giving yourself a hefty raise, how do you reconcile this in light of the budget problems you keep pointing out? Also, how can the city council and mayor go out for your annual 4 week off summer break, payed for by your constituents, with the host of problems (especially public safety) that need your attention?
Why give $6,000,000 to downtown???? Do we have any common cents (pun intended) in city hall???
PLEASE DON’T FORGET THE SPEEDWAY ON DRY CREEK BETWEEN MERIDIAN AND BOOKSIN. TRAFFIC CALMING IS DESPERATELY NEEDED HERE. HELP US AVOID ANOTHER LOSS IN WILLOW GLEN.
Pierluigi,
My questions to you in post #15 were not meant to be rhetorical questions; I sincerely wanted to know your position in these matters. Why make yourself available in this public forum if you are not going to bother answering questions?
To state the questions again, why does the mayor and city council take a 4 week break every summer and are you in favor of a charter amendment that would give the city council an almost 30% raise over your current salary? According to the Mercury you voted in favor of considering this charter amendment. Thanks in advance for your answer.
Hello Steve,
It is Saturday afternoon and we just finished the General Plan Taskforce field trip, covering North San Jose to Evergreen.
On the question of the council recess in July. It was started in the 80’s. I believe all elected bodies have some type of recess whether it be board of supervisors, state legislature, senate, house of representatives, etc…
Personally from my private sector background I am only used to the standard 2 weeks vacation.
On the the other topic I believe this issue should be taken out of the council’s hands and let the voters decide. If the majority of the voters feel one way or another leave it up to them. Again based on my private sector experience I was paid on performance and not by title.
Thanks for the questions. Steve since we correspond often what is your last name?
Pierluigi,
There are many here who comment or “correspond often” and I don’t see you asking for their last name, or even a real name. Is it now a requirement to leave a last name to ask you a question? I asked a sincere question and was only looking for an answer regarding why the mayor and council take an annual 4 week “break” and the possibility of a 30% pay raise in light of the budget problems…pretty valid questions. Thanks for answering.
I am confused by your response to Steve. What difference does a last name make—the questions are valid, he didn’t attack you, or anybody on the council, yet you challenge him by asking his last name. Why? Its apparent to me that you hold yourself to be a little “holier than thou” and seem to resent citizens asking the same types of questions that you rhetorical put forward in your “reports”.
Pierluigi,
Another Steve here. Since you are the council’s computer guy, when are we going to see the city’s customer service pages fixed? Over a year ago the Mercury News wrote about problems accessing the pages from behind a firewall. The root cause is the IT department’s insistence on using port 8443 instead of 443 for the SSL connection.
Hello Answers #20,
Many contributers/bloggers to blogs like TechCrunch for example,use their full name as they regularly contribute to a particular blog and are open to sharing their views publicly and taking recognition for their good ideas.
Many bloggers on SJI do the same, like John Michael O’Connor, John Galt, George Berlin, Richard Zappelli, Hugh Jardon, Kathlyn Flynn, Christian Hemingway, Don Huber, Diana Foss, Dan Malone, Greg Howe, Richard Mongler, Greg Perry, Frank Lange, David Dearborn, David Cohen, Steve Chessin, Clark William, Anthony Dominguez, George Green, John Brown, Blake Sobiloff, Helen Chapman, Dale Warner, Ed Rast, Betsy Wolf-Graves, Lucky Lucianni,Pete Campbell, Alfred Doten etc…
Personally, I like to make that personal connection when responding in cyberspace on SJI. This blog helps to connect all of us between our busy schedules of work and family.
I have enjoyed my experience writing for SJI and communicating with people who sincerely want to improve San Jose.
#21
Steve-1,
Some organizations block high port numbers (>1024). I thought that they changed that?
I would have to check with staff on this.
The city will be looking at changes to our IT capabilities over the next year. We did not raid the IT infrastructure reserve funds this year. Therefore we purchased a Storage Area Network in June to manage all of our 100,000 plus documents and archiving that will also enable us to get rid of 10 power hungry servers. The SAN should be fully up and running by Aug/Sept. Also implementing a virtualization solution to reduce the number of servers is underway so we can go green.
Pierluigi #22,
In regards to you asking for last names, blogs are an exchange of thoughts, suggestions, and ideas. Some of these are valid while others are not. There is no “personal connection when responding in cyberspace”, especially in this format, and leaving a last name has no bearing on a good thought or question.
I could even make an argument that it is bad policy to leave last names in this format. While the moniker cracks me up, do you really think “Hugh Jardon” (sorry Hugh)is a real name as you eluded to in #22. How does the name “John Brown” create a “personal connection” when there are millions of “John Browns”? Most people that post on this blog use monikers. Once a name is put on the internet and it is connected to an idea or thought it is there forever. There are unscrupulous people who may purposely do this for whatever reason. I have listened to KGO, which is a talk show format, for many years. Their strict policy does not allow callers to give a last name for just this reason. I have heard the hosts many times encourage the caller to use another name (first only) for confidentiality reasons or to make the caller feel more comfortable. This way a caller to KGO can’t call up purporting to being someone else for millions of listeners to hear.
Even a couple of your regular columnists (Single Gal, The Fly) use monikers rather than names. They both have great columns and ideas. Don’t always agree with them but they are fun and thought provoking to discuss in this format.
I agree with #20 ‘Answers?’, and was only asking a couple simple questions in #17. Again, thanks for taking the time to answer them in #18.
Dear All
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