City Hall Diary

Several months ago I wrote a blog “Try It Before You Buy It,” where I spoke about the importance of making sure that the city has the option of using technology before actually purchasing it. I shared how large organizations struggle with information technology (IT) implementations when dealing with vendors who often make promises that differ from the actual results received. I also pointed out how the VTA and City of San Jose have spent millions on unwise technology decisions to purchase software.

Skin-ectomy Cancelled After Pulses Found

A tragedy was averted early Friday morning when an alert night watchman, guarding the Body Worlds exhibit at the Tech Museum of Innovation, recognized several Santa Clara County supervisors in a corner of the basement laboratory who were tagged for the initiation process of de-skinning in order to be prepped for display in the anatomical exhibit.

By Marcela Davison Aviles

Prior to addressing the Mexican Heritage Plaza’s (MHP) sustainability model to operate successfully now and in the future, we believe the community should also ask the following: Is the Plaza making significant improvements and is it better off today than four years ago? The answer lies in the Plaza itself.  Four years ago the new board of directors and CEO inherited substantial debt; the Plaza also suffered from six years of deferred maintenance and heavy wear and tear. Critical equipment and systems no longer functioned. The garden was in decay. The administrative offices were unkempt and dirty. The parking lot was rented as a used car sales lot. The Mexican Heritage Corporation’s (MHC) finances were in complete disarray. The Plaza’s reputation, as characterized by one prominent arts program officer, “was a joke.”

It is the time of year when truth is the first casualty: election time. This year, one example comes in the guise of a “reform” Prop 93, the “change term limits” measure. When groups we should trust—firefighters and public safety personnel—send deceptive mailers talking about “reducing” the time the politicians can serve, it is, indeed, the depths of degradation. I can only conclude that they believe the end justifies any means. This particular end is the perpetuation of selected leaders in office, and increased benefits to those unions who play ball with them. It’s a sad situation and you wonder how any self-respecting person could have so little regard for the truth.

I can’t drive by a San Jose Unified School, especially those located downtown, without frustrations, questions and concerns. We live in an area where we have the confluence of high-tech and some of the smartest minds in the world, yet our school system in San Jose boasts poor facilities, program cuts and low test scores. This year especially, we have seen regime changes at the county and politics at the top of the food chain in the district; but are the kids and teachers getting the funding and the money they need to improve the educational system in San Jose?

January 21, 2008 is a legal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  It is a day in which we should take a moment (or longer) and pause…and think of the teachings of
Dr. King. His legacy, his goals and how he affected our society will be remembered forever.

What if Dr. King were alive today? What would he think of the USA or San Jose? The war in Iraq? What more could he have done—would have done? Could he have accomplished more?

Team Wants to Forfeit Any Rights to Home Games

Hockey in San Jose may become a thing of the past next year if the San Jose Sharks get their way after submitting a unique request to the National Hockey League for an unprecedented season consisting entirely of an away schedule.

The $100,000 consultants’ report to the city on the Mexican Heritage Plaza (MHP) has been completed and is available on the city’s website. However, its more than one hundred pages raise more questions than they answer. Many of those questions have to do with the consultant who wrote the report, Maribel Alvarez, and her qualifications, conflicts of interest, methods of data collection and how she was chosen.

Today is Mayor Reed’s State of the City and it is easy to predict an issue that will be paramount in his speech. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the budget woes of the City of San Jose are never far from us. Far from crying wolf, the wolves may be howling too late and not too inappropriately. San Jose has faced multimillion dollar deficits for the last few years. The mayor has decided to try and fix this one quickly, and, he hopes finally, in the next three years. As the front page story in the Mercury News reported yesterday, the mayor has performed quite well on the reforms that he promised the citizens in the last election. It is a refreshing and significant achievement.

Is it me, or does it seem that all good, big ideas in this City are here today, gone tomorrow?  I think so many good ideas fizzle in San Jose, and I really want to know why.

A music hall was once on the forefront of the city council agenda and there were debates in both the council and supervisors chambers on whether to build it downtown or at the county fairgrounds, and then: nothing.  It was a great idea but it seemed to vanish into thin air. House of Blues was pumped-up for a time and never materialized. We are all still waiting for another music venue.

City Hall Diary

Last week the San Jose City Council discussed the issue of co-payments for retired city workers and their dependents. The recommendation from the city manager was to defer adding co-payments for one year to allow more time for this issue to be researched. Whatever the outcome, the decision will affect 3,000 retired city employees, including dependents, and the city budget.

Mayor Reed’s State of the City Speech Only Gig Going

Thousands of starving Hollywood writers have arrived in San Jose looking for work on one of the last gigs going: Mayor Reed’s annual State of the City speech at the 2008 San Jose Community Breakfast.

The San Jose Mercury News is beginning to remind me of one of those aging Hollywood stars—male and female—who convince themselves that they are once again youthfully beautiful with their pumped-up lips and reconstructive plastic surgery, but actually resemble the “Phantom of the Opera” or Jack Nicholson’s “Joker” to everyone else. More plastic surgery won’t reverse the disastrous facial consequences to sixties TV stars, and a new editor-in-chief—the third in the past few months—from the corporate bowels of Denver-based MediaNews won’t fix their science experiment gone bad. And just like the old movie stars that do nothing and insist on aging naturally, the San Francisco Chronicle is now winning the Bay Area newspaper beauty contest. Go figure.

Purchasing the Future

The year of 2008 is already shaping up as a fascinating one, but tough decisions are ahead. BART, professional sports and our incredibly increasing deficits—state, local and national—are going to loom very large.

As I am making my own resolutions to lose weight, hit the gym more often and eat less carbs, I think that the San Jose City Council should make a few resolutions of their own in 2008. Here are some ways they could really improve our city this year.

City Hall Diary

As I bid 2007 goodbye and welcome 2008, I think of the many issues that my colleagues and I will be working on in one way or another. Whether balancing the budget, protecting our resources like industrial land or implementing the mayor’s Green Vision, among others, it will take collaboration, perseverance and, above all else, a good sense of humor to keep us all in check.