Rules Committee

Councilman Wants San Jose to Allocate More of Its Budget to Police

San Jose residents may get a chance to vote on allocating more of the city’s budget to public safety. A motion by Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio aims to put a charter amendment on the June ballot that would guarantee that 40 percent of the general fund goes to the San Jose Police Department. Right now, 30 percent does—down from about 35 percent several years ago. Also on the agenda: future development in the Cambrian neighborhood, a movie screening about female military veterans and letters of thanks to San Jose police and firefighters.

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Library Initiative Mistake Highlights First Rules Committee Agenda

And we’re back! The Rules Committee gets to business Wednesday after a six-week layoff, and among the items on the docket are the city clerk’s library initiative gaffe, a push for less transparency regarding election swag, a review of public officials’ calendars and a City Hall gadfly offering his services to lead a department.

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Just Short of Singapore

At the Rules Committee last week, there was a proposal to amend the Graffiti Abatement Ordinance for juvenile offenders.

When someone gets arrested for doing graffiti in San Jose or other cities in Santa Clara county they are punished via the County court system. However cities do have a municipal code where offenders may pay a fine. State law does an adequate job of prosecuting adult graffiti offenders, however, some would say not such a good job of dealing with juveniles, since county probation does not want to spend the resources to supervise their community service work.

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