Last week, the City Council made a change to suspend two construction taxes for a limited time in an attempt to encourage commercial property owners to provide improvements for their existing buildings. The hope is that if owners can improve their buildings at a lower cost, they may find tenants—which is a win for them and for San Jose. 

In any other time in history, re-election for President Barack Obama would be a cinch. But in the era of FAUX News, twisted truths, instant gratification and public ignorance, this administration will face a tough road to re-election. The Democrats need to do something to energize the base.

There is a game-changing local story about to take place in a few days. A decision before the SCCOE Board of Education is whether or not to approve 20 Rocketship Charter Schools on a countywide benefit charter basis. Each new school approval is listed as a separate action item on the Board’s agenda. The turf wars are just beginning.

Last year, Mayor Reed’s budget, which most of the councilmembers supported, gave warning to the city-funded “Art” groups that they would no longer receive funding from the city starting on July 1, 2012. As we know, the budget deficit continues. But one idea discussed at a recent Economic Development committee meeting was to simply away buildings in lieu of continued fiscal subsidies, allowing art groups the potential to increase fundraising.

For as long as I can remember, the body politic in San Jose has often displayed disturbing public signs of penis envy of its once-larger neighbor to the north, San Francisco. But a little rebranding could be exactly what San Jose needs to compete in the future.

We need career technical education and well-trained career counselors in every middle and high school in California. Columnists in local and national print media agree based on what I read Sunday, Dec. 4. Let me explain. Not everyone needs a 4-year college degree, but everyone must have requisite skills for the jobs of the 21st century in order to enjoy a middle-class income.

In a quest for even more affordable housing in San Jose, the City Council voted 10-1 to amend the North San Jose Area Development Policy. I voted no. Remember that San Jose has been the leader in providing affordable housing in the state of California, while other cities have done very little. As I wrote about on a prior blog, affordable housing must be a shared goal and not just in San Jose.

Editor’s Note: Jim Unland is a sergeant in the San Jose Police Department and president of the Police Officers Association. He wrote this column for San Jose Inside.

Good news has been hard to come by as of late. That is until yesterday. The city of San Jose Police and Fire Retirement Board voted yesterday to accept the plan actuary recommendations on pension costs for next year. And surprise, surprise, pension costs shrank to the tune of $55 million in the police and fire plan. That’s not a typo—$55 million will come off the projected budget deficit as a result of pay and concessions and concessions agreed to by police officers and firefighters.

Chris Shimek and I grew up in the same neighborhood.  We played baseball together, attended the same neighborhood schools—but the thing we had most in common was we shared the same best friend. The Chris I knew was outgoing, friendly, cheerful, and abhorred violence against women and children.  It is why he became a San Jose police officer. Something happened to the Chris I knew on Sunday, November 27, when he took the life of his soon to be ex-wife and himself.

Many juvenile offender services are not effective and some methods, like “shock incarceration treatment,” such as Scared Straight, actually worsen anti-social behavior. Unfortunately, with TV reality shows touting such interventions, communities continue to support these high-profile, ineffective programs. The thinking is: ‘We will just scare them into changing their ways.’ Only by looking at certain studies do we see that mixing youthful offenders with adult criminals, or with like-minded peers, only increases the chances that they will commit another crime. 

We continue to attempt to build education reform from the top down rather than from the bottom up. Building a foundation with our two teachers’ unions (CTA and CFT) for lasting school reform—beginning with evaluation systems that are effective, pay for performance plans that work, and ending tenure as we know it today—is the only way we will hit a home run. Until then, our children and schools lose.

The sick leave payout perk was something that the current City Council inherited from a prior council. Although once considered a nice perk, if the city continues this trend without any change it will continue further on a downward spiral of spending money it does not have.

This Thanksgiving we have so very much to be proud and thankful for relative to the education of underserved children living in the poorest areas of Santa Clara County. And last week’s decision to approve three new charter schools will prove to be one of the most important weeks in local school governance in decades.

The City has been grappling with proposed changes to Title 16 for over two years. Title 16 covers the regulations of card rooms. The 125-page document reads like a novel. Although the State of California oversees gambling facilities, San Jose has it’s own regulations for two gambling facilities, which are Bay 101 and Garden City. Some say this is duplicitous since another level of government regulates this type of legal business. Others say the state does not regulate closely enough.

Every major project has Citizens Against Virtually Everything (CAVE) people fighting against it. They hold up every good project, they hurt our economy, our progress and cost us money. But how many times can these people be wrong before they simply go away?

I wonder if the growing presence of high quality charter schools in Santa Clara County will serve as the revolution for eliminating the achievement gap. Will innovative means of learning be the norm? Is the timing right for a revolution in our public school system in Santa Clara County? Will the status quo prevail? Or, can change be the only constant now? We will know answers to some of these questions after the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) board meeting this week.