The Police Officers Association announced Friday that its members would accept a one-time 10 percent cut in pay and benefits for the coming year. Union leaders cast the move as a generous proposal that would save jobs. Mayor Chuck Reed immediately called the offer inadequate, and warned that it came dangerously late in the game.
Read More 86Debra Figone
Budget Crisis Looks Even Bleaker
By
San Jose City Manager Debra Figone unveiled her proposed budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year on Monday, and the forecast is grim. With a projected shortfall of $115.2 million, Figone’s budget says 588 city positions will likely need to be eliminated, which comes out to roughly 10 percent of all workers. Of that amount, 370 workers would be subject to layoffs. These numbers come under the assumption that the city will get all 11 labor unions to agree to an ongoing 10 percent cut in total compensation for city workers. If agreements are not reached, an additional 446 positions would need to be eliminated.
Read More 90Pink Slips and Pension Reform
By
In the 10th year of budget cuts, San Jose City manager Debra Figone has said more than 600 employees could lose their jobs to help tackle a $115 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. The process of handing out pink slips began this week, and more than 100 police officers are being notified that they could be out of a job come July.
Read More 27City Manager Delivers Bleak Outlook
By
Editor’s Note: The following is a letter that was sent out last week to city employees from City Manager Debra Figone. In the letter, Figone explains the current budget crisis. San Jose is expected to have a deficit of $115 million for the next fiscal year starting in July. Even if all workers agree to a 10 percent cut in total compensation, Figone writes, almost 620 jobs will still need to be eliminated. The last day on the job for many of these people would be June 25. Figone will be unveiling her proposed budget on May 2.
Read More 35Airport Director Taking Over Team San Jose’s CEO Role
By
Team San Jose announced Wednesday that Bill Sherry, Mineta-San Jose International Airport’s aviation director, will be its new CEO. Sherry has served as aviation director at Mineta for the past six years. He will continue in his role with the airport while also leading sales, marketing, and communications management for Team San Jose, which controls the city’s Convention Center and arts and entertainment venues.
Read More 6Headhunters Target SJPD
By
City Releases Employee Salary List for 2010
By
The top salaries for city employees in 2010 were released Friday, and recently retired police chief Rob Davis topped the list at $534,576 in total cash compensation. Of the top 15 on the list of 624 full- and part-time City of San Jose workers, nine are members of the police department and five work for the fire department.
Read More 85No Facts Behind Ugly Rumors About Oakland Chief Batts
By
A couple of days before Debra Figone finalized her selection of Chris Moore as the city’s next chief of police, councilman Sam Liccardo referred to the candidates’ race as “the elephant in the room”—Moore, acting chief for the last three months, is white while the other finalist, Oakland Chief of Police Anthony Batts, is black. The real “elephant in the room,” though, was an inflammatory online report by a small newspaper in Long Beach.
Read More 9Police Chief Selection Causes Mixed Reaction
By
Report: City Manager Selects Moore to be Police Chief
By
Is Anthony Batts Coming to San Jose to Escape Trouble in Oakland?
By
Anthony Batts has only been the Oakland police chief for a year, which has prompted speculation as to why he is interested in coming to fill San Jose’s open position in the midst of a three-year contract he just signed. A report by Ali Winston, a producer for KALW Radio in Oakland, suggests Batts might want to come here because Oakland faces a real threat of having its police department placed under federal receivership.
Read More 24Police Chief Search Down to 2 Candidates
By
It looks to be a two-man race in determining who will be the next chief of police in San Jose. Reports state City Manager Debra Figone will make her decision by early February, and the final candidates appear to be acting police chief Christopher Moore and Oakland’s current chief of police, Anthony Batts.
Read More 13Secrecy Surrounds Search for San Jose Police Chief
By
The Coalition for Justice and Accountability, a citizens group which includes Silicon Valley DeBug’s Raj Jayadev, released a report Wednesday about what people in San Jose would like from the city’s next chief of police. The report also requests more openness in the process. The city has been guarded on releasing the names of candidates.
Read More 27Support Our Mayor
By
It is the City of San Jose’s process that City Manager Debra Figone puts forth a budget proposal in May. Then, after that is released, councilmembers make their budget proposals to Mayor Chuck Reed.
When the Councilmembers make written suggestions of their “budget wants,” they also need to include what funding source within the city will be affected (some written suggestions from councilmembers are done in collaboration with labor unions).
Then, the Mayor takes into consideration the City Manager’s budget proposal and the Councilmember’s suggestions, and comes up with a final budget.
Of course, a mayor could put together their own budget without this input, but it is customary that the mayor takes other perspectives into consideration.
Read More 28Unions Question City Hall Contracts
By
![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/sekany-140x90.jpg)
Union Leader Randy Sekany pounds the table and rails about the way the city spends money.
“I mean, $150,000 on ergonomic chairs? When you’re firing people? When you’ve cut back how many employees? There’s not a few spare chairs around? Really?”
Sekany circulated a document around City Hall headlined “City Spending Gone Wild,” which details more than $7 million worth of expenditures on a range of items and services, from hybrid Priuses to real estate assessments. The union assembled the numbers in response to City Manager Debra Figone’s request that they take a 10 percent pay cut, reduce the number of engine companies from 34 to 29 and lay off 80-plus sworn firefighters.
Read More 53