San Jose Inside

Declaring a fiscal and public safety emergency, Mayor Chuck Reed unveiled his fiscal reform proposal Friday afternoon at City Hall. The reforms will focus on pension and health care for current and future employees, and some actions will require changes to the city charter, meaning measures will need to be put on a ballot for voter approval. The proposal being put forward was co-signed by Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen and councilmembers Sam Liccardo and Rose Herrera.

A 51-year-old San Jose man died from his stab wound injuries late Thursday night, bringing the total of homicide victims in San Jose this year to 21. That total is one more homicide than San Jose had in all of 2010.

By Ash Kalra

The San Jose Inside April 27 article “Manny Diaz Shilling for Loan Sharks” seems to imply that the lobbying efforts of Mr. Diaz have resulted in a decision by the City to delay accepting Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s grant to study the impact and breadth of the payday loan industry in San Jose. This is simply not the case.

A legal settlement has been reached in the federal lawsuit between the city and a San Jose State student whose violent encounter with police two years ago was captured on video. Rather than go to court, the city will reportedly settle with Phuong Ho—who said his civil rights were violated when police used a Taser as well as a baton to subdue him—for somewhere in the range of $90,000 to $225,000.

A couple of weeks ago, the San Jose city government sent out hundreds of layoff notices to city employees. KRON 4 News reported that 25 percent of the city’s librarians received notices that their positions could be eliminated. The Mercury News reported that the San Jose police officers’ union has offered to cut their salaries by 10 percent in an effort to reduce the number of layoffs. Even with this last-minute concession, San Jose’s police force may still be reduced by 106 officers.

Before word leaked out through the usual channels that councilman Ash Kalra had been arrested and charged with a DUI early Saturday morning, Kalra and his chief of staff, Joseph Okpaku, were already in damage-control mode. They beat the CHiPs to the punch by holding a casual press conference at Kalra’s home.

Santa Clara County is on the verge of the beginning of the end of public education as we have known it for the last 100 or so years. I am not intending to be hyperbolic; I’m simply stating the truth as I know it. Will each child’s educational opportunities be enhanced by the shake-up? Or will there be winners and losers?

The Council last week made the second SERAF payment to the state. SERAF is where the State raided all RDA coffers in California—again—in our case taking $75 million from San Jose.

The Police Officers Association announced Friday that its members would accept a one-time 10 percent cut in pay and benefits for the coming year. Union leaders cast the move as a generous proposal that would save jobs. Mayor Chuck Reed immediately called the offer inadequate, and warned that it came dangerously late in the game.

On Sunday and again last night, I saw the Sharks play the best hockey I have seen in 20 years. It doesn’t seem like 20 years ago that my family and I would pile into the car and drive to the Cow Palace in Daly City to watch hockey. I shared seats with a good friend who had never been to a hockey game in his life, until opening night at the Cow Palace.

A protocol put together a few weeks ago by deputy DA Jim Sibley tried to clarify his office’s stance on medical marijuana with a simple explanation: Collectives are legal under California law if they are clearly nonprofit and follow land-use codes. That didn’t stop Police Chief Chris Moore from telling the San Jose City Council that he’d heard directly from the DA’s office that not one of the 100-plus dispensaries in San Jose is legal.

There is a strong correlation between the effectiveness of the military and the K-12 pubic school system in America. We have the best-trained and equipped military on this planet. We have spent half-a- trillion dollars since 9/11 on our national security apparatus. Our investment and training has paid dividends. Tragically during the same 10 years we have disinvested in public education. This disinvestment is a national security crisis of epic proportions.

San Jose City Manager Debra Figone unveiled her proposed budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year on Monday, and the forecast is grim. With a projected shortfall of $115.2 million, Figone’s budget says 588 city positions will likely need to be eliminated, which comes out to roughly 10 percent of all workers. Of that amount, 370 workers would be subject to layoffs. These numbers come under the assumption that the city will get all 11 labor unions to agree to an ongoing 10 percent cut in total compensation for city workers. If agreements are not reached, an additional 446 positions would need to be eliminated.

The saying, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” can be said for the City of San Jose’s closed session meetings. In a prior blog, I wrote about what I could of closed sessions called “The Mystery of Closed Sessions.”

Cinco de Mayo won’t be quite the extravaganza it normally is this year. San Jose’s annual parade and festival has been canceled. Mounting costs and a lack of cooperation from the city were reasons cited for the cancellation, according to the American GI Forum, a veterans group that puts on the celebration.