Below are a few observations from last week.
Monday: Council study session on Airport
Overwhelming majority of Council thought outsourcing of janitorial to save $3 million was a bad idea so it looks like we will lay people off and consider getting rid of the night time curfew in the future.
Monday Night: General Plan 2040 Task Force Meeting
Although the General Plan board members were informed that the City’s budget problems are partially due to most of our land being dedicated to housing instead of jobs, the Task Force voted in favor of adding 300,000 people with a 14-11 vote. The two options were 200,000 or 300,000 new residents. Several task force members shared that they voted no because they wanted to see higher growth of 500,000 more residents to San Jose! I voted for the option that added 200,000 people by 2040.
Tuesday: Council Meeting
After 18 months of staff and paid consultant “research” regarding my Sept. 18, 2008 memo proposing that developers of affordable housing projects be required to pay park fees, as market-rate developers are required to, the question finally came to Council. I believe that people of lower income are deserving of 100 percent park fees/land dedicated, the Council decided to support the Housing Department’s compromise that developers pay only 50 percent. To date, the City of San Jose has lost approximately $90 million in park fees from developers because of this park exemption.
Are you familiar with the term, “What Would Jesus Do?” Well I wonder as we come up on Caesar Chavez Day, “What would Caesar Chavez do” if he was alive and on the Council. Considering that affordable housing provides for people of lower incomes and is often located in areas that do not have parks, would he vote for equity when it comes to parks in San Jose for all people?
The next agenda item on the council agenda that day was the Habitat Conservation Plan where it seemed that the Council had more sympathy for the checker spot butterfly then parks for people of all income levels.
Wednesday: Visit Medicinal Marijuana Collective in Oakland
One collective is on target to write a check to Oakland for $360,000 in city taxes and another check to the State of California for nearly $2 million in sales tax of which approximately $200,000 will come back to Oakland; therefore Oakland will be receiving approximately a half a million dollars from one legal medical collective that employs 80 people with an average hourly pay of $43.
Thursday Night: Neighborhood Association Meeting
I talked about the budget and announced to the audience that the City would be suspending the $750K aquatics program for the 2010-2011 city-wide. I shared that the City could restore the entire program if we chose different ways to do city services, like outsourcing janitorial services at City Hall for example. There were many in the audience that felt that they did not care who cleaned city hall but they would rather have a summer aquatics program for youth or a library open.
Friday Morning: American Leadership Forum-panel discussion titled, “A new recipe for regional job growth.”
Panel discussion of private sector and labor spoke to how the region can create jobs going forward. A business person asked the labor panelist, “What if public employees would take less in pensions to help balance the budget and avoid layoffs? Response from labor panelist was that, “Most of the deficit in San Jose is not pensions but debt service on City Hall.”
Actually, the debt service on City Hall is $24 million of which $17.1 million is from the general fund out of a $116.2 million general fund deficit. $52.9 million is the amount the general fund must cover this year in increased pension contributions since the taxpayer must cover any losses in the pension funds. The $52.9 million to cover pension losses is only a portion of the total amount devoted to pensions this year which is $200.2 million.
Looking back in history on 5/14/02 the only votes against new city hall was Linda LeZotte and Chuck Reed.
Another SEIU/SBLC victory re outsourcing.
How much was the consultant paid for 18 months of study on park fees for affordable housing?
Does the $52.9 million get paid back if there are pension fund investment gains, or is the usual one way street? BTW, how can there have been losses last year when the overall market rose 60%?!!!
> A business person asked the labor panelist, “What if public employees would take less in pensions to help balance the budget and avoid layoffs? Response from labor panelist was that, “Most of the deficit in San Jose is not pensions but debt service on City Hall.”
I am reminded of my friends in various start-up companies where the President of the company came up with the business plan, raised money, hired the staff, and also swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and emptied the trash—and took no salary.
In the sixties and seventies, Senator William Proxmire took the defense establishment to task for buying over-priced “gold-plated” weapons systems.
Today, governments—local, state, and federal—are swollen with gold plated employees. Yielding to union pressures, politicians pay government employees based on how great the union thinks the employees are.
The wisdom of Senator Proxmire is: “no matter how great a military jet is, we’re only going to pay for the job it NEEDS to do, not for all the jobs it COULD do.”
Government needs to pay janitors on the basis of the MINIMUM necessary skills to do janitorial work.
Teachers need to be paid for only the MINIMUM essential skills to teach the class they are hired to teach. Paying teachers for un-needed extra credits or advanced degrees is pure waste.
Most cities require only a high school diploma to be a police officer. San Jose requires two years of college. San Jose gets ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY APPLICATIONS for every police academy position. San Jose is clearly offering and paying way too much for its police force.
San Jose needs a top to bottom work force audit. The taxpayers need to be assured that the City is paying for ONLY the employee qualifications that are needed for the jobs the city needs to be done, and NOT paying for extra resume fluff.
If San Jose did a competent job of hiring only NEEDED skills, the saving in staff salaries would undoubtedly close the budget gap.
Sooner or later the politicians are going to have to choose between labor peace and voter peace.
The job of politicians is NOT to please the unions. The job of a politician is to tell the unions that they can’t have everything they want.
Mr. Olive,
It seems pretty disingenuous for you to invoke the memory of Cesar Chavez to support your side. You are obviously trying to break up unions, whereas Cesar Chavez devoted his life to organize the UFW. You are a true politician, willing to steal, I mean borrow, from any other cause to further your own agenda. You should be ashamed to do this with Cesar Chavez, as you could obviously care less about the principles he lived and died for.
Also, if you came out of your ivory tower and were down here on the streets, you would know what a joke these pot clubs have become. There is an entire cottage industry of doctors issuing pot cards to anyone with a hangnail, and most of the post is going for recreational use, not those with debilitating injury or disease.
You are a joke and a poor leader who spends his time blaming his fellow council members for all the problems. Show some real leadership and bring some big legitimate business to San Jose.
Wouldn’t Cesar Chavez object to the city spending money on projects and programs that didn’t benefit the people? Would he have supported a system that provided for city workers to receive 90% of their pay for the rest of their lives? Finally, I should think that Chavez would have objected to the practice of closing the libraries and other city services to “honor” him. My guess is that he would have insisted that you keep things running and open on his birthday, rather then denying them to the people that he championed.
Mr. Campbell,
You also have some balls invoking the memory of Mr. Chavez to further your own agenda. Do you really think Mr. Chavez would have ever got to a point where he would have stopped fighting to increase pay and benefits for the farm workers? I remember back in the 60’s and 70’s when Chavez and the farm workers were villainized for forming a union, and Safeway tried to break the union. Our city would be flush with money if not for a new city hall which ended up costing almost a billion dollars, golf courses paid for by the city, and on and on. Of course, Mr. Chavez would have wanted the libraries opened, but I doubt he would have wanted it on the back of organized labor. It sounds great that you are so concerned for the needs of the “people that he championed”. Are you also in favor of bilingual education, low cost medical services. low income housing and welfare for these same people? I seriously doubt it. By the way, can you provide the information on exactly how many city retirees get a 90% pension currently?
Pierluigi-
I thought “uh oh” as soon as I saw your title with the Cesar Chavez part. What would Lincoln do? What would Washington do? What would Jesus do? Those are all safe as these figures kind of belong to most or all of us as cultural heritage (although if you used Jesus you’d alienate as many people as you pleased.)
Other historic figures from Martin Luther King to Cesar Chaves apparently belong to the cultural movements that they were a part of and even if you like the person and their philosophies, you can’t use them in this way unless you belong to the same groups and think that same way as everyone else in them. Of course some of this gets ridiculous…but such is life in our small little corner of the universe.
I honestly think that inspirational people are good for all of us and get us out of the worn grooves of thinking and acting like everyone else. There’s a real lemming streak in our culture where everyone simply must think the same way, and talk and posture in the usual manner to fit in with the herd.
Sounds like you had a rough week, but you’re doing good work even if it gets discouraging at times to see the majority taking the easy way out again and again and passing the buck to future council members and taxpayers. I like the fact that you quoted the correct figures on debt service to counter the labor lobbyist, but sadly the person probably won that round with their misinformation delivered to a sympathetic crowd eager to misdirect attention. There’s a saying that if a lie is repeated often enough it becomes an accepted fact. That’s kind of how our modern democracy works with sound bites, talking points, hit pieces in the mail and planted stories in the media.
Thank you, Frank. I, too, am disgusted that Pierluigi is invoking Cesar Chavez.
Pierluigi, don’t believe for one second that you and Cesar Chavez have the same beliefs, interests, values or constituencies. He devoted his life to the rights of poor, immigrant workers. You have voted against every single affordable housing project that has come before the city council. Chavez wasn’t marching so that workers had parks in their immediate neighborhood. And I promise you that if he were alive today advocating on behalf of something before the city council, you would be on the opposite side.
Maybe on Martin Luther King’s birthday next year you can blog again about moving that bus stop in front of walgreens. Ask us all what MLK and rosa parks would do? And then you can further pretend that you are a populist.
blair,
Maybe I am missing something, but aside from weekly ranting about how awful organized labor is, what has Mr. olive done that you consider “good work”? Maybe he can use some of his high tech connections to get back some of our best jobs which his friends in high tech sent overseas and they lined their pockets with.
Frank,
Elected officials do not create jobs private sector does. If a new company locates in San Jose it is choosing between cities in the South Bay not China or India. Oliverio is a true independent and we need more of them in government at every level.
What’s my agenda Frank?
No one has raged more against the City Hall project than I have.
MERC had a piece just the other day on cops getting 90%…(I believe that Fire is close to that value as well).
I repeat my assertion (and add Martin Luther King to the mix) that both men would not have wanted government services to be halted/closed to “honor them.”
tony,
Go back and read my post. I never said elected officials create jobs. They help create a business climate where companies consider locating. Just look at how successfully Santa Clara and Sunnyvale have done so. They also have city councils and mayors who only get paid a stipend with no benefits, unlike our own city council, including Cesar Oliverio, who get bloated salaries, staffs and benefits, the same ones he decries as evil. How independent.
Cesar Campbell,
Again, I ask you the question, how many cops actually ever make it so long to retire at 90%?
Because the Merc had a piece on it means nothing. The merc has evolved into a left wing and I do not put much trust into their articles.
When are you and Oliverio going to evoke what Jesus Christ, The Pope, Buddha, Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi or Sister Teresa would have done in this budget crisis, and how your thinking would have lined up with theirs?
Calm down Frank! I think the horse is dead. You’re beginning to sound like Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of the Rainman.
Frank,
You too “have some balls” comparing the bloated city employee “desk jockey” salaries and benefits with the men and women who toil in the fields under the hot sun.
I seriously do not think Ceasar Chavez would want to see 450 union employees laid off so Cops and Firefighters can retire at 90% salary!
Chavez lead a courageous, and necessary, social movement. City employees are just trying to keep their sweet deal going. To compare Chavez’s work to the greed of San Jose’s public employees unions is a disgrace!
Hey Point of Order,,,it is Oliverio and and Campbell that are comparing themselves to Cesar Chavez. I agree that the salaries of “desk jockeys” are bloated and this includes the council members and their staffs. Desk Jockeys and police officers working a beat on the street for 30 years are apples and oranges. The SJPOA is constantly working with the low income community on the officers own time and with their own money. Many of these officers are Hispanic and relatives of those that Mr. Chavez helped when they were working in the fields. I bet Cesar Chavez would have appreciated that more than worrying about repaving streets to make your Willow Glen constituents happy.
I see plenty of your posts on San Jose Inside. Are you now the posting monitor? If you don’t want to read my post then by all means don’t read it. Otherwise, it is really not your business if I respond to posts on this site. If I want to be passioniate about a subject that shouldn’t really concern you, although I guess I am flattered you read my posts with bated breath.
You are quite welcome, Greg. I am glad I could break up the dreary monotony of your day spent in a cubicle. Maybe you should start your own blog since you have such a natural talent at being a moderator.
I will try and post something later in the day so you can check me for redundancy in subject matter, if you are not too busy checking other posts.
Thank you so very much, Frank, for the nice compliment. I have indeed fancied myself as being a talented moderator. When you get out, we should get together for lunch.
Frank, thanks for the laugh… it was a pleasant way to start my workday.
Yes, indeed, pot clubs are a joke. But, getting them legitimized and taxed is the foot in the door that we need to legitimize and tax most street drugs.
You could put a HUGE tax on pot & coke, and the price would still be less than 25% of what it is as long as they remain illegal.
Legalize pot.
And then there’s how much taxpayer money spent on anti-smoking campaigns?
Did I miss the study where pot smoke has vitamins that are good for lungs? I might have been out of town when they released the research where inhaling second hand pot smoke is the nutritional equivalent of inhaling spinach and broccoli?
Does Ken “Stamp-out-smoking-in-unincorporated-areas” Yeager know about all this? Or is smoking pot in unincorporated areas deemed to be ok?
It’s all so confusing.
yes, tax pot, tax coke, tax heroin, tax it ALL. Do I believe any of that is good for you? NOPE. Cigarettes are taxed mightily, yet idiots continue to smoke. I’d be stunned if more that 20% of the folks who buy “medical marijuana” have a legitimate medical purpose for doing so. Medical marijuana is a huge joke, a complete scam. And the purveyors know it. it’s a way to unload their sensimilla “legitimately”. The customers are mostly just stoners who get some doc to go along. But I DON’T CARE. if they want to get loaded in the name of medicinal purposes, I don’t care. So let’s get a tax benefit out of it.
Remember, 100 years or so ago all that shit was LEGAL. We got too puritanical as a country for a while. Ever hear of prohibition, Novice. That was a great success, right? WRONG! People are gonna do it, so let’s make a tax buck off it.
Keep or increase punishments for driving under the influence, etc. Get the revenue.
Pierluigi,
Thanks so much for the very insightful information. You’ve once again reinforced my opinion of all but a couple of council members. They’re blithering idiots who act without concern for the wishes of the people. Moreover, they’re bought and paid for by a variety of liberal interests.
“They’re blithering idiots who act without concern for the wishes of the people.”
Multiply that by 535 and you have the US congress and US Senate.
San Jose retirement contribution rates
” shall not exceed the ratio of three (3) for such officers and employees to eight (8) for the City. “
3 QUESTION to Council member Oliverio
1) Does this mean city employees are contributing their 3/8Th ( 37.5% ) share and city 5/8th ( 62.5%) share in 2010-11 to make up the large pension fund stock market and real estate losses ? If not, why not ?
Mayor Reed’s Budget memo http://www.sanjoseca.gov/mayor/news/memos/10March/MarchBudgetMessage2010.pdf
– Page 2
Police / Fire $43.6 Federated $9.3 million – $52.9 million
– Page 5
” San Jose will need to increase City pension contributions by $52.9 million in 2010-2011 ”
2) Why not have city employees, if they want high pension plans contribute more to pension plan rather than city Increase 3/8th employee ( 37.5%) to 4/8th ( 50%) each employee / city ?
3) How does San Jose compare with other California and local cities on to employee / city pension contribution rates ? Heard many tax rich cities give 100% contributions or employees give very small not like San Jose’s very high contribution rates
“Sooner or later the politicians are going to have to choose between labor peace and voter peace.”
It is a matter of if , it is a matter of when in next 2-3 years, the voters will revolt against irresponsible Legislature and out of control unfair union pay demands
Vote for California’s ” Government Employee Restrictions” Proposition” that will
1) restrict total Government employee costs as percentage of total government budget cost,
2) restrict employees as percentage of population
3) restrict pension / benefits costs as percentage of employee costs
forcing state, county and local governmemts to reduce employee costs or numbers as percentage of total government costs
San Jose has hundreds of bloated city senior management jobs ( $100,000 – 180,000 ) that are political cover their butts bureaucrats
Council will show public that are really serious if they cut the hundreds of Assistant, Deputy and Senior Manager jobs in City Managers office and city Departments first before cutting any lower wage direct supervisors and city workers who actually provide us services
We will not see any service reductions and more service level efficiency because of less staff interference and worthless bureaucratic make work rules
ABSOLUTELY. And do the same in school districts—cut the managerial staff; and reduce the number of districts by at least 50%
Ummm, those “bloated” jobs are not limited to senior management. Many are police officers and fire fighters.
In 2008, 9349 employees were paid by the city. 1230 of these had base pay (not including overtime and other pay)in excess of $100,000. These employees included an Air Conditioning Supervisor, 3 Senior Executive Assistants, a Senior Accountant and a Principal Accountant. These don’t sound like “hundreds of Assistant, Deputy and Senior Manager jobs.”
Pierluigi,
In addition to your visit to Oaksterdam, I’d suggest that you contact some folks in LA concerning the cost/benefit of the proliferation of pot clubs. They have had significant enough problems to enact a crackdown while here in SJ they seem to be poping up on every corner without any discussion.
If you are responsible, you will begin to question this.
I am a medical marijuana patient living in Los Angeles. I have Crohn’s disease (aka Irritable Bowel Syndrome). If I do not medicate with cannabis each day, my appetite disappears, I have trouble keeping food down (it will go either way posthaste, if you know what I mean), and I am physically unable to perform my job. Since I started medicating with cannabis, I have gained enough weight to the point where I am now almost “normal” looking.
I know countless other patients at my local dispensary suffering from AIDS, glaucoma, and PTSD (from Vietnam and the Iraq wars) who benefit greatly from California’s medicinal marijuana policy.
Now, I have seen firsthand the stoners, potheads, worthless societal rejects, whatever you want to call them, that also frequent these establishments. It is obvious that there are many people who abuse the system that is in place, which is unfortunate for people in my position, since it lessens the legitimacy of my use of cannabis as a medication.
But that’s not my point; rather, I would like to point out to you that people abuse all kinds of systems or laws in society. For example, as a resident of South Central Los Angeles, I also witness firsthand the masses of welfare queens taking advantage of a system that was meant to help those who are down on their luck, not those who simply don’t want to work. Not to mention that many of these people are in this country illegally.
So, before you get all high and mighty (pun intended) about a few hundred thousand medical marijuana patients in the state of California – who use a drug that is relatively harmless and produces only victimless crimes, unlike alcohol; and who are a potential source of HUGE tax revenues – I think it would be wise to tackle the bigger fish we have to fry in this state.
Good day.
Marijuana is a general motivation zapper. While I cannot and would not make a judgement on your medical condition or the efficacy of pot in treating it, marijuana is not a victimless drug. There is a reason that it shows up in urine and blood tests for up to 2 months. It is persistant in the system and promotes a general mental lethergy that lasts much longer than the time of ingestion.
Young people everywhere who smoke pot are subjecting themselves to reduced ambition and career prospects. At a time when we are trying to encourage them to improve their skills to compete at a world-class level it is a mistake to encourage the recreational drug life-style that is encouraged by pot “clinics”.
If marijuana needs to be proscribed as a medicine, it should be through a small number of facilities that dispense a controlled standardized product and not through places that advertise their exotic brands. These places should also be carefully monitored to watch that the ‘patients’ do not smoke and drive away. A stoned driver is a murder waiting to happen. What we really don’t need is a bunch of fly-by-night operations proliferating like the noxious weed they are selling.
Councilmember Oliverio,
I have a comment on your stance regarding park fees for affordable housing projects. While I agree that the city is under parked, and that everybody deserves equality in parks, I want to address the issue of funding affordable housing projects and the impact that parks fees will have on future projects.
Affordable housing developers get their financing to build their projects from an assemblage of sources including:
– Traditional Financing from a bank in the form of a construction loan or permanent loan
– State Loan Programs/Grants for affordable housing
– Federal Loan Programs/Grants for affordable housing
– Federal Tax Credits (Help with the returns to get financing)
– City Funding
The last bullet point (City Funding) is the important part of my comment. Affordable housing developers often compile everything they can to finance a project and still end up $3 – $5 million short. Traditionally, when this happens the City will “gap” the funding so that the project can be built. Without this City funding, most affordable projects throughout the Bay Area will not get built, especially in the current economy.
Adding additional costs in the amount of 50% (let alone 100%) of Parkland fees (San Jose has some of the highest in the Bay Area) could cost up to $10k per unit or $1 million for a 100 unit project. Where is the funding for that going to come from? The answer in most cases is: The City of San Jose.
Also, Saying that the City has missed out on $90 million in park fees is a little misleading as an observer could say that if park fees had to be paid on affordable projects, the City would be paying its own park fees because of the gap funding.
We all know that because of budget constraints, the Housing Department and RDA are no longer providing the gap funding for affordable projects, and now that park fees have to be paid it is unlikely that any affordable housing projects will be built in San Jose.
I know that you understand this issue, so now I have a question for you: Are you using the politically correct issue of park fees to try and stop affordable housing so you can advance your issue regarding the jobs to housing imbalance in the City? If so, that is pretty crafty.
We need to change the title of this column to “What would Cindy Chavez do?”
We have heard Ms. Chavez and her supporters on the council (Kalra, Campos, Chu, etc…) criticize Mr. Reed’s budget proposals. What has been missing in this discussion is any viable plan from Ms. Chavez to solve San Jose’s budget crisis.
What would Cindy Chavez do to solve San Jose’s budget crisis?
SteveO,
The folks that you mention couldn’t, collectively, think their way out of a wet paper bag. But thanks for the laugh, it was a great way to start my day.
I think we know what Cindy would do. Raise taxes and slash services to maintain and increase the pay and benefits of public employees. That’s what she voted for when she was on the council.
Just a brief point, city council staffs are not listed in budget proposals. I believe all numbers are only seen by city manager and the council.
All other funded positions can be found on the city’s webpage except city council staff positions and the numbers attributed to those positions.
We do not need full time city council member in either San Jose or at the state level. San Jose City Council members should serve part time and receive no benefits. Hopefully, Pierre would agree with this and maybe discuss it with his fellow council memberz and mayor, since Pierre seems to want financial responsibility in our city.
Here is a link to a petition to an organization pushing to make the California state level positions part time, as they are in several other states.
http://www.reformcal.com/cms/index.php?page=latest-news