The “victory” claimed by certain union members by suing the city over the word “reform”—as in “pension reform,” known as Measure B for the June ballot measure—may have actually jeopardized a future tax increase to fund their own jobs. The removal of the wording, “essential city services including neighborhood police patrols, fire stations, libraries, community centers, streets and parks,” was included in the ruling and cannot be used as a way for the city to lure residents into supporting higher taxation.

The much anticipated San Jose Rotary Club debate between Councilmembers Pete Constant and Ash Kalra did not disappoint. Both Constant and Kalra were spirited advocates for their positions: Constant defending Measure B, the pension “modification” measure; Kalra, a lawyer, presenting the views in opposition. By the end of the debate, to the disappointment of many, it was Kalra who gained the most.

I tuned in to the Master’s golf tournament Sunday and was struck by the ExxonMobile commercials urging the country to work toward improving our declining global rank in math and science education. The narrator of one of the many commercial spots says, “Today we rank 25th in mathematics. There’s no medal for that. Let’s train more teachers. Let’s inspire our students. Let’s get America back on track.” Easy for ExxonMobile to say, but enormously difficult to do—particularly in California, where we are continuing to disinvest in education in apocalyptic ways.

As we know, health care costs are escalating at double-digit rates. The continuous high costs are a burden to the self-insured, businesses and government. In San Jose, we have an unfunded health care liability of approximately $1.5 billion. The City of Stockton has been in the news for starting the process of bankruptcy under AB506, and much of their plight is due to the cost of health care benefits. San Jose should implement a incentive/mandatory wellness program in 2012 to reduce the cost of health care.

The spillover from Milpitas’ toxic political landscape has finally seeped over to San Jose. On Tuesday, Milpitas councilmember Debbie Giordano requested the city’s attorney investigate council colleague Armando Gomez’s fundraising activities for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. The direction by Giordano seems to be a direct response to Gomez—a senior budget advisor to Reed—targeting a lobbying loophole that he says Giordano and political consultant Vic Ajlouny have taken advantage of.

We San Joseans are a schizophrenic bunch. We’re all for economic development, but we consistently complain about noise generated by the airplanes, traffic, and sporting events that come with it. We’re pro-environment, but we’ll drive our Hummers to shop in Campbell or Milpitas, so we can have plastic bags to pick up our dog droppings. We’re pro-innovation, but we do very little to attract the startups and R&D projects that form the backbone of our region, and we add insult to injury by embracing the misnomer “Capital of Silicon Valley.”

Trayvon Martin’s death on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Florida, is a tragedy of epic proportions. I strongly believe Trayvon would still be alive today and attending school in his Miami-Dade County high school if alternative suspension strategies had been the norm in his school district. Every school in every district should take this opportunity to reexamine disciplinary policies that are historically ineffective.

The city’s General Fund is not legally obligated to pay an airport expense or debt service payments.However, the City Council has discretion over the allocation of general fund monies in general, and may approve an allocation of General Fund monies for airport expenditures. This includes payment of debt service. The allocation of general fund resources to the airport would be a policy decision by the City Council, not a legal obligation.

Nothing stings as much as a politician you helped gain public office betraying you. It’s not uncommon, but it doesn’t make the pain any less real. The result, of course, is predictable. The aggrieved party works doubly hard for the next opponent; which brings us to the sad case of Councilmember Rose Herrera. Herrera would not be a San Jose Councilmember if not for the support of progressives, local democrats and the South Bay Labor Council. Her first campaign was literally run out of Labor’s headquarters.

This week, Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone has agreed to answer questions from San Jose Inside readers. He is the sixth public official to participate in this series. Questions are selected from online posts to this site.

Last week, I attended the Oversight Board for the Successor Redevelopment Agency public meeting. One person who watched the meeting said it was “like viewing the reading of a will.”  That was a fair analogy. In the case of the deceased RDA (56 years old), the deceased had property it owns but comes accompanied with liens from the County and JP Morgan. The meeting also showed that while the deceased was alive, Sacramento poached over $100 million from the estate, which disrupted RDA’s ability to pay planned debt installments over a period of 20 years.

Mayor Susan Hammer is among the best leaders San Jose has ever produced, and I have tremendous empathy for her and those who are frustrated with the decisionsCity Hall has made to shortchange our libraries. But the answer is a change of personnel at City Hall, not a charter amendment which, admittedly, will be popular with voters—especially with her leadership. But the policy puts the city on a slippery slope of percentage-based spending. It may sound good, but it is this same type of policy that got us into trouble on the state level.

Dear Larry: We need to talk. It started a few years back, when Lew Wolff got it in his head that Oakland wasn’t the best home for the ballclub he’d recently purchased. The A’s play in a rundown stadium in a decrepit area of town in front of a dwindling—albeit loud and loyal—fanbase. The organization’s limited revenue stream prevents it from building a consistent winner and essentially makes them a ward of the league. Enter San Jose.

California, we should be embarrassed. Our disinvestment in public education is taking its toll on our state based on new data. We find ourselves in a deepening crisis that screams out for a strategic plan to support a change in course. Approximately 100,000 students fail to graduate high school in this state every year, and more than 50 percent of these people are students of color. But there are strategies we can use to boost graduation rates.

A citizens signature drive is underway to secure a certain percentage of the budget for our libraries. This would replace the library parcel tax set to expire in 2014. If enough signatures are collected, the measure could be placed on the ballot in November. Last month, I proposed examining and collecting data for setting a certain percentage of the budget—higher than today’s percentage—for the police department. Perhaps we could combine the ideas and set a percentage of the budget for police and libraries.

Since the implementation of district elections and term limits, competitive elections for incumbent San Jose City Council members have been previously nonexistent. But this year is different. Scorn and division have replaced civility and respect as the local body politic descends into the kind of morass usually associated with cities such as Sunnyvale and Milpitas.