Should San Jose City service levels be cut, and fees for services raised, so that city employees can enjoy more pay?

The Mercury News recently reported that automatic “step increases” will cost the city $10 million in FY 09-10 (almost $8 million to be paid from the city’s general fund). “It’s going to come from layoffs or reducing services…” Councilman Oliverio said…“Or, we can recognize the severity of the situation, bargaining units come together…and come up with a way to save jobs and save the city money.” (Mercury News 3/22).

President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama have had an enormous amount of face time on television since the Inaugural on Jan. 20.  Just in the last few days we have seen the president ESPN, Jay Leno, and 60 Minutes and Michelle in the White House garden.

Let me softly suggest that the First Couple use their popularity to squelch the insidious and growing problem with schoolyard bullying

Apparently San Jose State University is quite the party school. Except it’s not the students who are having all the fun. On March 5, around noon, police were called to room 229 of Clark Hall, where Food Culture was being taught. According to Detective Mike Santos, the officers on the scene found the instructor Eileen Trans, whom they say was a tad bit intoxicated. “She walked in and she had fallen and hit her head on the whiteboard and then she just started acting really weird,” said Dan Lu, a student in the class. Though she was not arrested or cited, the officers had someone come pick her up, and told the class it was canceled for the day. The following week a new teacher was filling in for Trans.

When Mayor Chuck Reed and his City Council allies created the Public Intoxication Task Force back in October, they put its members on a tight leash. The Task Force, created in response to community members outraged over the large number of Latinos arrested for being drunk in public, predictably demanded full access to arrest reports, as well as a greater scope and extended timeline so they could get down to the bottom of this issue. Members of the group soon began to feel stonewalled by city leaders—and let them know it.

Last Friday night I went to something that seems almost counterintuitive these days given the decline of their industry—a celebration for journalists. The Northern California Ethnic Media Awards, held in San Francisco, honored the various faces and forms of ethnic media outlets—the Sing Toa Daily’s investigation on SRO’s, Allianza’s photo essay on Oaxacan migrants, the Nichi Bei Times full issue on the concept of “mixed race.”

Last week I responded to many of your questions with a term, “Meet-and-Confer.” This terminology is used in reference to discussions that city management has with unions about almost anything.

Once a labor contract is agreed upon, any thought of a change requires a meet-and-confer meeting. It could be a compensation freeze, sick time, vacation time, grievance, health care, retirement, education reimbursement, uniform allowance, time off with pay to conduct union activities, examining the possibility of using a non- union person to provide a city service, or even discussions about future employees who have not been hired yet, etc… So with the current budget deficit, if we want to have a discussion about city staff taking one day off without pay ($2.88M) to avoid layoffs, then there needs to be a closed-door meeting.

San Jose news, San Jose politics, City Hall, “the 18th Floor,” Santa Clara County, SIlicon Valley, newsmakers, issues, thoughts, opinions; here at San Jose Inside, the keywords are: rants and raves.

The San Jose Earthquakes kick off the 2009 campaign this Saturday against the four–time MLS Cup finalists, the New England Revolution. In building this year’s squad, coach Frank Yallop added several new pieces to the puzzle, the most notable of which is U.S. National Team midfielder Bobby Convey.

The night she was arrested, Maria Castillo fit the description. A petite, 49-year-old grandmother and home healthcare worker, Castillo is Latina in San Jose – and that ethnicity, in that city, makes her the most likely person statistically to be charged with resisting arrest.

When the Hearst Corp threatened, on Feb. 24, to shutter the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News reported the announcement with hook-line-and-sinker-swallowing gullibility in a story headlined: “S.F. Chronicle may cease operations.” Now, it seems, the Merc‘s owner is prepared to come to the rescue.

Last week saw the Silicon Valley return of ETech, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, where programmers and philosophers pool resources with fringe technologists, CEOs, hackers, artists, marketers, urban planners, statisticians, garage software engineers and geeks from every part of the spectrum—all with the future in mind. It took place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, and here are just a few of the things this tech nomad experienced during his traversal of the landscape.

There’s been a lot more chatter about the A’s moving (or not) to San Jose, but you would have to look in the San Francisco Chronicle to find it. Here are some highlights (and lowlights).

Commissioner Bud Selig visited Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday and met for an hour with Giants managing general partner Bill Neukom and President Larry Baer. Baer would not discuss the meeting but hinted Selig affirmed his public stance that he will not allow the A’s to breach the Giants’ territorial rights to San Jose. “From what we could tell, there is no change in his position,” Baer said. Henry Schulman, SF Chronicle, March 16

Once again an educational tsunami has wreaked havoc on the California Public School system.  All the small, incremental, yet significant gains that have been made in student achievement growth during the last few years will be summarily erased due to the state’s budget crisis and resultant reduction of revenue flowing to school districts.

What a very sad commentary for a state that enrolls 11 percent of all K-12 public school students in the United States, and was known to be the model for excellence in public education in the 1950s and 1960s.

On March 12, I hosted the second annual budget meeting in my district. My goal was to inform the community about the budget process, the size of our budget, where the revenues come from and different options on trying to deal with the current deficit.

The major message from the residents that attended the meeting was that the city needs to change employee policies and compensation (including sick leave payouts and pensions) before cutting services.

It’s SJI’s weekly open forum, and all lines are open.

You read it here first: The A’s are coming to San Jose. “Lew Wolff knows San Jose.  He’s made major investments in our downtown and knows that a ballpark at the right site will be a major boon to San Jose’s downtown and citywide economy.” That’s from a column by Jude Barry, written for SJI four years ago—on Jan. 11, 2005.

In recent weeks, our friend Jude’s prediction has come closer and closer to fruition, and today the A’s may have taken one more step toward a move to the South Bay.