Last week I featured some of the budget memos I submitted to the mayor. Here are the rest that I submitted. Budget memos are only allowed to be signed by one councilmember. Doing things differently in some areas means we can spend more in other areas.
Strong Neighborhoods Program (SNI)
The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) spent $105 million on the neighborhoods deemed to be within the SNI areas. These areas represent roughly a third of San Jose. The SNI program is another example of a program that was started with “extra money” the city had in the early 2000s. The current budget proposal allocates $585,721 from the general fund to support a scaled-down SNI program. I propose using all of these monies for specific code enforcement issues throughout the city of San Jose. At one time the city had 19 code enforcement officers; now we have 2.5. If we use this funding for code enforcement, we could increase the number of code officers to at least eight code officers.
Boards and Commissions
The City Charter requires the City to have a Planning Commission and a Civil Service Commission. However the other 40-plus boards and commissions are not necessary. These boards and commissions require paid staff to attend, prepare and manage them. The staff includes employees from the city clerk, city attorney, city manager, city department staff and City Hall facility staff to set up meeting rooms.
I propose eliminating all commissions and boards that are not in the Charter. Another option would be to have these 40-plus boards and commissions meet no more than two times a year, taking into consideration that if there is a time-sensitive issue and/or project that necessitates the need of a meeting, then those exceptions could be warranted. These reductions would save the city money on employee costs. This suggestion is not new. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed the elimination of 43 state commissions and boards. The City of San Jose would be wise to follow suit.
Information Technology
Management Partners’ study for the City of San Jose showed that we spend less than 1 percent of the budget on information technology while other comparable cities spend 5-7 percent on information technology. Because of this the City of San Jose, for example, currently runs on desktop software that is 10 years old. The Capital of Silicon Valley needs to do a bit better.
The City of San Jose has two phone systems. One is a VOIP system that costs approximately $300K a year. The other system is a legacy Centrex ATT system that costs approximately $2.1 million a year. To replace this legacy system will cost $1 million in one-time costs. However it would generate approximately $1 million in annual savings afterwards. There is $600,000 in reserves for this project however $400,000 is needed to move forward.
I would suggest allocating the first $400,000 from the portion of the Council offices’ rollovers that will be swept into general fund (as was done last year in the Mayor’s budget) be allocated to this upgrade. The ongoing savings should be allocated to the Information Technology Dept to allow for the further investment of money, time and implementations of new web-based technologies that allow for residents to interact easier with city government. as we will need to do more with fewer resources.
Libraries
Eliminate all services and programs at libraries and reallocate. Use the savings to increase library hours to keep libraries open including the opening of newly constructed libraries yet to open. Libraries are in the City Charter and should be funded so that they are open for business. The additional programs are not part of the Charter. Consideration should be given to programs that are 75 percent or more volunteer driven. (This would save $1.2 million and allow one of the three libraries that are currently closed to open four days a week or add 2.5 hours a week to every library city wide).
The topic of increasing volunteer opportunities in our libraries should be discussed with the union to see if there is a way for volunteers to augment current library staff to allow branch libraries to stay open longer.
The City should gather pricing information regarding outsourcing a branch library or multiple branch libraries from a company such as Library Systems & Services, which has been providing library services since 1981 and currently oversees libraries throughout the United States, including in 47 cities in California and cities in Oregon, Texas, Tennessee and Kansas. The City has an obligation to San Jose residents to investigate all options to keep libraries open.
Dept. of Finance
The City should outsource payroll services the way that Cisco (70,000 employees) and most other companies have. The money saved can be used to save finance positions for other core services like the oversight of the City investment portfolio.
You have excellent points. Several community colleges do that with great success. Students learn library skills and job skills. One college in San Mateo is thinking of promoting several students to circulation work after they found one guy sitting around emailing political campaigns and blogging while he should be working. Turns out they found several other “librarians” at other colleges doing the same.
Time we focus on volunteerism for libraries and not for the personal black helicopters of some guy on Cubbles.
Did anyone read the Mercury News about the transperancy concerning city council calendars?
It seems that Constant and Oliverio as well as others are very disclosive about their calendars.
They should be praised, especially Pete.
You read about Wiener and his using government email addresses to discuss issues about getting up and close and personal, and now we read above some guy at a college library using emails to discuss politics, and maybe, like Wiener cutsey pie emails, these people are discussing cocktails and dancing on the public dole. The difference between Pete Constant and Oliverio is that they care about the public’s right to know.
as to how much is fluff. What if I told you….
If we can augment with volunteers to increase hours of operation for residents that would be good. Maybe even a something like a co-op model.
Pierluigi
“The City should outsource payroll services”.
Does that mean that “Peggy” will be handling payroll?
It means a private company like ADP would handle payroll and then allocate those resources to more core Dept of Finance roles.
Pierluigi
Great idea to get rid of the commissions! Let’s also outsource the City Planning Department and while you’re at it, simplify the Municipal Code and the Zoning Ordinance so that a property owner knows what can be built without discretionary review. Even without a budget crunch, you could greatly improve San Jose’s business climate by putting those petty planning dictators back in their cage.
Planning Commission is in the City Charter. Some number of planning staff needs to be funded by general fund to do core planning however other planning staff dependent on the ebb and flow of permit fees may need to switch to contractual since there are highs and lows of applications to process. You may be speaking of some of other issues when you speak to one planner you get one story and different story from another planner. That certainly should not be the case however there are also some applicants who do not do their due diligence prior to purchasing property for development and then blame staff. Overall I agree with you that there is always room for improvement but it does take planning staff funded by the general fund.
Pierluigi
We need to outsource the council members and bring in volunteers…you know, those who will do the job FOR NOTHING or close to NOTHING. Like the Santa Clara council.
Pierluigi,
All great points; a return to the basic requirements in the City Charter would be a very cost effective pursuit.
I would also suggest looking backwards and identifying all of the budget “mandates” that have been added over the last 15-20 years.
In my opinion, erasing the general fund deficit could be done by cutting added programs, going back one year at a time, until we approach a balanced budget. After all, we lived without those programs for more than a century.
The Entitlements Generation was spawned long ago by FDR.
Government has grown exponentially for decades. If people think they are entitled to something, logic will never get in their way when the taxpayers can no longer afford the perks and seek to rein in the excessive spending.
Everyone hates Congress. Approval ratings are the lowest in decades. Yet they keep re-electing THEIR Congressperson. Why? The pork, which mutates into entitlements sooner rather than later.
Every dollar sent to D.C. gets 40 cents taken off the top before it filters back to the people who sent it there. The federal government is growing like a cancer. Look at MEDICAID. There would be much more money for actual health care if we sent no dollars to D.C. to redistribute back to us, minus their 40% cut.
The SJ Office of Cultural Affairs has been my favorite whipping boy for years. They proposed $2.8MILLION for ART at the new sewage treatment plant! They spent some $60k for a photgarpher! I was told that The Office of Cultural Affairs is not a general fund expense any longer, and is supported by the TOT paid to hotels. Fine, eliminate the department anyway, and use the TOT funds saved to pay for dowtown cops’ salaries and benefits.
Problem is, everyone has their pet project, and consider it an entitlement. Government spending at all levels is completely out of control, since government continues to inject itself into our daily lives. We need less government, not more; but so many people have been sucking the government tit for so long they are addicted.
This country is going downhill fast. Better get Rosetta Stone for Chinese and start studying.
And in spending $60k for a bloody photographer, the city essentially created a program to educate young minds about what happens when they put anything down a drain, or in the gutter, or when they leave the tap running unnecessarily. In doing so, they just may easily save millions of dollars for the plant in the future. All because they had the horrible, wasteful, foresight to hire a photographer to document the sewage treatment plant. Imagine that.
I’m not saying that the pile of dung in Cesar Chavez park was a good use of money, but not everything is as simple as it seems on the surface O’Connor, and not every budget solution which looks good now, will actually be good for us long term.
That certainly makes sense as a way to unwrap programs that were added during times when we had more money and may be out of our scope.
Pierluigi
Pierluigi,
Many but not all San Jose Commissions and Boards serve a worthwhile purpose of having residents and local businesses participate in developing broader based city solutions, ideas, recommendations and decisions rather than just limited to Council and city staff many times strongly influenced by political special interests points of view.
Yes, there are too many Boards and Commissions with 12-15 or more of questionable value, difficult to find qualified volunteers so taking their key functions and consolidating down to 15 – 20 Boards and Commission makes good financial and common sense but down to Charter’s 2 does not
Additionally there is too much work for Council and reduced city staff to not use volunteer Boards and Commissions to help in research, recommendations and decision making
San Jose is now widely known for having open transparent city government with widespread energetic diverse public participation which also is why the city have thousands of volunteers unlike other cities since volunteers have believe and actually do participation in city decision making not just free volunteer manual work
Reducing Boards and Commissions down to less than 15-20 ( 50% reduction ) will take city government back to the old back room deals days, increase public distrust and reduce confidence that city government is being run for public not special interests wanting our tax dollars rather than taxes being spent on essential city services
There is much you propose that many agree with but massive reduction or limiting Boards and Commission to 2 time a year is not a good idea
The idea of reducing Boards and Commission to only 2 sounds like an old time back room deal politician and city staff not wanting public to question their recommendations idea using financial crisis as an excuse to limit public participation rather than an another good common sense idea from Pierluigi
Please rethink your proposed reduction to 15-20 fully functional Boards and Commissions meeting at least 6 time a year to assist Council and reduced city staff Thank you
Thanks for the feedback and also your willingness to reduce number of commissions and boards plus their meeting frequency.
Pierluigi
Your official position on this contract proposal? I am sure everyone here would be interested.
Hey Buddy,
How have you been?
How about those proposals last week I made on outsourcing park maintenance and reducing funding for charities to save 42 police officers jobs?
Look forward to the vote of the membership.
Pierluigi
Hey there tiger. Ya, I like the effort to save public safety jobs. Too bad you were the lone vote on MACSA. Truly amazing the grip the Latino lobby has on this council. Otherwise doing quite well. Voted NO yesterday and enjoying the sunshine.
Hi Pierluigi,
I respectfully disagree with your statement that the answer to saving $$ is eliminating boards/commissions not listed in the City Charter. That may be one answer, but I suggest that PROCESS IMPROVEMENT may be another way to keep our democratic voices (via boards & commissions) intact and still save $$. Examples: why are so many staff in attendance at these meetings? Are all of them REALLY “required” to be there? (I think not) And the meetings are recorded so why not simply hand the recording over to a staff person for transcription during regular office hours the next day? Or, better yet, turn it into an audio file people can listen to if they really want to. Next, do the Commissioner informational packets REALLY have to be mailed? How about using technology and have pertinent information uploaded and available for commissioners to download prior to meetings? Heck, we could even hold virtual meetings via webinars to eliminate the need for City meeting space. Many competent people sit on boards & commissions who could easily run meetings in this manner.
It seems to me Pierluigi, that the City gets so bogged down in its own protocols (“we’ve always done it this way…”) that when there’s no money, DRASTIC cuts and eliminations are made. Instead, let’s look at the WAY THE CITY OPERATES. I do agree that board/commission meetings might be consolidated or meet on an ad-hoc basis or as needed basis, but certainly more than 2X per year.
In Corporate America, many companies regularly perform process analysis. I suggest the City might find some great savings by hiring one-time(non-City employee) consultants to look at processes and ways to save money. More pain up front ($$$), but potential long term gain (savings) later on. We must start looking long term as well as address short term problems. You know this Pierluigi, being one of the brightest and most progressive minds on the Council.
Last, thank you for acknowledging we should keep library programs/services that are 75%+ volunteer driven, as the Friends of (library) are great at continual fundraising for these valuable and truly needed community services.
Discloser to SJI readers: I am a Library Commissioner.
Thanks Pierluigi, for posting your suggestions and rational.
Tina
“but I suggest that PROCESS IMPROVEMENT.”
Process elimination is a better idea. This town is mired in process.
Tina,
Thanks for your insights.
We may differ however I think we both agree the current format needs to be changed. The Governor is getting some push back so I would not expect any difference in San Jose.
Meeting for the sake of getting together is sometimes not the best use of time.
Pierluigi
Make City Council a part time position. With all the cuts of city employees less to do. If they want a retirement have them start a 401K. The council has to pay the least amount of any member of the city work force towards retirement. 9%. Go figure
PO,
The reason that San Jose Commissions and Boards are so very staff time consuming, budget and employee costly is that staff has 3-6 pre and post closed door exempt from Brown Act private meetings and 3-12 or more staff involved for each Commissions and Board public meeting:
1-2 pre staff planning ( desired outcomes ) meetings
1 pre staff and Chair meeting to influence / pretest staff presentation
Public meeting with 2-8 staff at meeting or more
1 -2 post ( were desire outcomes achieved and identify who objected and how to overcome individual or group objections ) staff meeting
0- 1 post staff and Chair post meeting as needed
Total 3-6 closed door staff meetings for each public Commissions and Boards meeting and occasionally more if issue is highly political or Council / staff wants to change public opinion or ” educate ” the public to their point of view by controlling staff presentations, public input, having staff ” expert ” rebutting public input at each public meeting to control ( manipulate ) meeting to achieve desired ( staff or political ) outcomes
Cut staff involvement, control and manipulation meeting by limiting to 1 pre and 1 post staff / Chair meeting for each public Boards and Commissions meeting will reduce costs and improve public participation results
One way to cut staff involvement is to have less meetings.
Pierluigi
San Jose’s Flogging City Employees Theme Song
– “The Worst Day Since Yesterday”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSud7vAH_0&feature=related ( Play Song while Reading Lyrics )
Well I know, I miss more than being constantly hit
With union contract that was launched to sink
An’ I seldom feel, the bright relief
It’s been the Worst Day Since Yesterday
If there’s one thing I have said
Is that retirement dreams I once had, now lay dead
As the four winds blow, my reduced pay out the door
It’s been the Worst Day Since Yesterday
Fallin’ down to sweet retirement ground
Where the flowers they don’t bloom
It’s there I’ll be found
Hurry back to me, my boss is calling,
It’s been the Worst Day Since Yesterday
Though these Council wounds have seen no wars
Except for the deep scars I try to ignore
And this endless crutch, well it’s never enough
It’s been the Worst Day Since Yesterday
City Hall Hell says hello, well it’s time to I should go
To greener jobs, that I’ve will soon see
Hurry back to me, my boss is calling,
It’s been the Worst Day Since Yesterday
The city shot down a proposal to go open source for not only operating systems but for other software. The cost savings would have be in the millions over the past 10 years. It was shot down because they felt city employees were too stupid to use something other than Microsoft. Payroll should have been outsourced a long time ago.
The VOIP phone system is already outdated as they bought those systems 5 years ago from a manufacturer who is now out of business. Like the idiotic decision to use Nortel rather than Cisco for the IT system. Where is Nortel now? Bankrupt.
The city purchased a police dispatch system that cannot be effectively reprogrammed nor can it be integrated into other systems. The police department still has no electronic report writing and file management system. Instead reports are printed, collated and indexed by hand, and filed away. Effective police agencies use real time data to target problems in their cities but with the police department still using 1970’s technology, coupled with its inability to data mine crime statistics and information, the police department cannot effectively manage patrol and investigations. Why are these problems persisting? Because the agency is commanded by idiots and fools who not only don’t understand technology but are fearful of thinking outside the box and punish those who do.
Capital of Silicon Valley in self-assigned name only.
Yes Nortel sold off the phone division to Avaya which was a spinout of Lucent no Alcatel so it is still supported.
I think the police department review of the new records management system was good involving front line users in the evaluation. No business application will ever be perfect for all users but will always be better than paper.
Pierluigi
You are somewhat accurate on the PD RMS process but let’s not ruin that observation by trying to justify the Nortel/Cisco debacle. The Nortel products were crap to begin with, outdated when they were finally purchased, and are grossly unsupported by comparison to a Cisco package. The city crumbled under media pressure instead of just standing up and stating that just because Cisco is a home town company didn’t mean that it wasn’t the best choice. Now the city has to bide its time until they can replace all the junk with Cisco products down the road.
From an outside perspective since I was not on the Council at the time it did seem like a debacle. I have issues with with public procurement process however since it is the spending of tax dollars it requires a transparent process. However i have seen that this process does not always end in the best price as you are not allowed to work the vendor down further in price as is done by CFO’s. Also it may not lead to be the best solution when it comes to technology however this is subjective as someone else could argue differently. Private sector is not immune to mistakes in buying technology.
Pierluigi
“Because the agency is commanded by idiots and fools who not only don’t understand technology but are fearful of thinking outside the box and punish those who do”
A para-military organization is great for getting people to follow orders in times of chaos and adversity. When it comes to choosing technology the PD has always been its own worst enemy. The SJPD is plagued by those who think that just because they managed to test well on a promotional exam and were promoted for reasons that I wouldn’t mention in mixed company, this suddenly makes them an expert in all things. Despite there being some in the command staff who have tried valiantly to push the PD into the next century, there are just too many albatrrosses hanging around their necks. Fortunately some of those that were punished for actually having an opinion have found that the private sector values anyone who helps the bottom line no matter what their official title. Others of us continue to bang our heads against the wall.
Pier,
I think you are on the right track. Obviously a shake up and reprioritize/downsize of social programs and overstaffed commissions is way over due. My understandings that the same laws the state enacted a few years back requiring us to annex all of the rundown county pockets within the city’s borders also relegated the responsibility for social services to the counties. Why are we still handing out tens of millions in these programs? When surplus funds exist in abundance we can revisit funding these welfare-feel good items but right now let’s reign in the madness!
As a home owner=I pay taxes (unlike ‘affordable housing’ and apartment dwellers) meaning I’m about fed up with service cuts for my tax dollars and seeing millions upon millions given for all kinds of ridiculous plans. I pay thousands each year to feed my own kids then my taxes go for thousands to feed some unemployed whino’s kids.
I wonder why as well, we do things the County should provide however once you start spending money you build up a constituency that is dependent.
Pierluigi
That’s an interesting statement and it holds true for every single government welfare program: Social Security, Medicare, etc…Bottom line. Every single middle class working adult is contributing to the annual income and health care of not just himself and his family but that of the ‘lower classes’ by means of income redistribution. Add to the fact that this process incorporates numerous layers of government bureaucracy at every level, and you have a massive, ponderous, and cripplingly inefficient system.
With these faults glaringly obvious in San Jose, we see in microcosm the multiple failures which add up at every level of government and have made of us a nation with a rate of unemployment roughly equal to the percentage of our population that is illegal immigrants and a taxes only somewhat less than that of Japan’s – the worlds most heavily taxed nation.
Pier,
Does the city deduct union dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the public employee unions?
Yes. Approximately $7 million a year.
Pierluigi
Pier,
Thanks for the reply.
Why should taxpayers be on the hook for the costs associated with collecting dues for the unions?
Shouldn’t the burden of collecting dues be shifted from the taxpayer and city to the unions? ie. The unions should be responsible for and bear the costs of collecting their dues from their union members?
@ Bill
I second those sentiments. However, you forgot to mention one additional thing: shortly after the transition to the new dispatch system, it was crippled by bandwidth/hardware problems and numerous senior dispatchers ended up getting medical retirements because of how poorly the user interface is designed. Basically, it accelerated repetitive stress injuries off the map. Lastly, the software/system is an unreliable piece of crap as it semi-regularly decides to pack it in, leaving officers on the street to resort to the decades-old technique of stopping their car, taking out pen and paper and writing down the type of call, location of call and other salient details while techs are called in to diagnose/resolve the problem – all at cost to the taxpayer in terms of money spent to resolve the issue and potentially precious minutes expended before the officers are able to respond to the call for service.
Pier ,
What Happened to your replying to questions and comments – the best part of your blogs since NO ONE at City Hall answers public’s and taxpayer’s difficult questions
Hello,
I try to reply but will not always be available to do so. Will do my best.
Stay well.
Pierluigi
Did this while I had a 100degree fever last Saturday.
http://memegenerator.net/instance/8098037
Seems appropriate for your comment.
Robert,
Your family must be really proud of you.
Mr. Olivero, you can forget about outsourcing library employees (see below). My suggestion is that you get rid of the computers that are used for surfing facebook and the dvd horror movies such as Saw IV. Your libraries really have a lot of garbage on their movie shelves. The computers are rarely used for research (I suggest you visit sometime).
Further, I suggest you contact your bond holders and inform them that San Jose can no longer afford the interest payments. If they refuse to reduce the debt or interest rate, we should then take the issue to the voters.
Regarding library employees , this just came out of Sacramento:
AB 438 (Williams) was passed in the Assembly today. This bill was amended on the Assembly floor last Wednesday and sets a new precedent by dictating the terms of public-private contracts. it effectively prevents cities from contracting for library services to save money.
BTW: Your payroll idea might be a good one.
??? :I fail to understand why purchasing a new phone system would save you a million a year. Please provide the supporting data.
Lastly, your city spends about 2 million on a health care for kids program. If you have a deficit, I fail to understand how that is affordable. Health care for the poor is the responsibility of the state and your subsidy should be eliminated until your budget is in balance.
“Further, I suggest you contact your bond holders and inform them that San Jose can no longer afford the interest payments.”
All that would do is force a downgrading of the bonds, which would raise interest rates needed to get anyone to buy them.
” If they refuse to reduce the debt or interest rate, we should then take the issue to the voters.”
And under what authority can the voters reduce the interest rates on bonds, Mike?
Two incredibly bad ideas.
“Further, I suggest you contact your bond holders and inform them that San Jose can no longer afford the interest payments.”
This kind of an action if it were feasable or possible, could also downgrade the city’s credit rating, which would not be a good thing in bad economic times.
Yes there are several bills in the Legislature that take away local control and tie the hands of local government. It amazes me how local representatives abandon their roots in local government for interest group campaign donations.
VOIP is simply cheaper than legacy phone systems where ATT is billing you for every call.
Pierluigi
Tracey,
I think they’re immensely proud I didn’t end up having “Measure V & W sign pilferer” added to the list of shameful things I brought to the family.
If you know my family so well… OK… What was the pet my Great Grandma Rose kept out in her garden?
We have cops in our family. So you and your snide remarks can suck it. You don’t know jack about my family. Maybe they don’t like me, but I don’t like the thought of them being out of work for a baseball stadium. I still love them.
“suck it”
You are a sad person.
>>You are a sad person.
Nah I’m actually pretty happy, I don’t share the same name as a convicted man slaughterer like yourself.
Tracey,
I agree with you.
He is a sad person.
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Linda
Linda who?
Linda, Tracey’s other personality.
Great why don’t we contract out ALL of the city positions and for the library, hire volunteers that have a sex registrant backgrounds who are on the “Megans Law” site.
And for the City hall Politicians ever answering your questions…. Ha I asked for that to happen and that jackass Reed blew me off!
Great just great
Old Frank