San Jose Inside

After much discussion at the City Council meeting last week the Council voted in favor of having city staff study performance as a criteria when it comes to employee layoffs. The review will determine if the City should include job performance when considering layoffs, or keep the current system in place, which is based solely on seniority.

I remember when a few civic leaders pushed to have the convention center in downtown San Jose named after former mayor Tom McEnery, even though he was still alive (and still is). Then came a train station that had to have the name of another still-living public figure, Rod Diridon. What came next? The San Jose International Airport’s name wasn’t good enough, so these same civic leaders (who like their own names on other buildings in surrounding communities) pushed to have our then quaint airport named after Norman Y. Mineta. Certainly a fine and honest man, and also very much alive.

Thursday’s announcement that San Jose’s Firefighters union, Local 230, had tentatively agreed to a 10 percent cut in total compensation was the first domino to tip in labor negotiations with the city. On Friday, the city received a proposal containing concessions from five other unions.

This just in: The City of San Jose and International Association of Fire Fighters Local 230 have agreed tentatively to reduce firefighters’ total compensation by 10 percent. Mayor Chuck Reed and union president Jeff Welch will hold a 6pm press conference today outside of City Hall at 200 E. Santa Clara St.. A source close to the negotiations said the deal was close to what was previously reported on San Jose Inside, minus the retirement portion, because the city wants to study actuarial schedules in greater detail.

Team San Jose announced Wednesday that Bill Sherry, Mineta-San Jose International Airport’s aviation director, will be its new CEO. Sherry has served as aviation director at Mineta for the past six years. He will continue in his role with the airport while also leading sales, marketing, and communications management for Team San Jose, which controls the city’s Convention Center and arts and entertainment venues.

Editor’s Note: The following was written by City Councilmember Nancy Pyle and included in her March newsletter. Pyle represents San Jose’s 10th District. On Wednesday, February 16th I traveled to Sacramento with Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen, Councilmembers Ash Kalra and Donald Rocha and Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Harry Mavrogenes. Our mission was to discuss the governor’s plan to eliminate Redevelopment Agencies statewide.

Last week, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown offered stark comments and opinions on the subject of runaway public employee compensation and pensions.  In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Reed suggested that the “seeds” of the problem were planted almost 30 years ago.

The Topeka, Kansas–based Westboro Baptist Church, notorious for picketing at the funerals of American soldiers because its members believe God is punishing the country for condoning homosexuality, has announced plans to stage a protest outside of San Jose’s Gunderson High School this Friday. The church says it’s coming to San Jose because Gunderson is staging a production of The Laramie Project, a play that tells the true story of the murder of a young gay man in 1998.

UPDATED WITH CORRECTION: Firefighters Union Local 230 and the city are on the verge of reaching an agreement that would reduce the deficit and possibly even get back some jobs. The most radical concession involves the introduction of a two-tiered retirement plan, and distinguishes between employees hired before and after the agreement is signed. It will be the first such plan for public employees in the entire country.

What is going down in Wisconsin with the teacher’s union is a Category 5 hurricane. In order for us to really “win the future” we must be smart and collaborative. We cannot declare war on public employee unions and think our future would be brighter. It will not.

The City Council will be back in session Tuesday after no meeting was held last week due to Presidents Day.

San Jose begins taxing medical marijuana dispensaries on Tuesday, following the passage of Measure U in the last election. To help ease the transition for dispensary owners, City Hall held a seminar on Monday morning on how to calculate and pay the 7 percent tax.

In past blogs I have expressed my concern about the cost to our city of too much housing. Specifically, housing that does not pay its own share of revenue. One example I have pointed out—and constantly been the lone vote against—is affordable housing.

In what has become an annual refrain, we again sit at a crossroads of bad choices about cutting services and jobs, far worse even than last year. In June, we will slash many crucial services and lay off hundreds of city employees—as many as one out of every five—to resolve a budget deficit that will likely exceed $120 million. Demonizing our hard-working employees does not amount to much of an answer. After all, employees fairly bargained for these benefits.

The task remains for elected officials today to show renewed courage and fiscal sense. That requires a more difficult conversation, one about whether and how to cut retirement benefits that our current employees and retirees have long relied upon. While constitutional protections make it difficult, if not impossible, to do so through traditional mechanisms of collective bargaining, we need to work with our unions to find a new bargain with our employees: one which is both fair and sustainable.