San Jose Inside

The 2009-2010 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury today released a 33-page report titled Cities Must Rein in Unsustainable Employee Costs that says, “Employee costs are escalating in the cities of Santa Clara County, revenues are not keeping pace with these increases and cities are cutting services.” The Grand Jury looked at rising wages, health insurance, pensions, and vacation, holiday, and sick leave and made recommendations to control costs.

Welcome to the City of Santa Clara where “Yes” means No, and “No” means yes.  That is, when it comes to the Measure J Campaign, the drive to build a football stadium for the 49ers. A posting on the website, Save Santa Clara.com, indicated that supporters of Measure J had gone to the trouble of registering several different domain names that might have been useful to the opposition.  Apparently, it’s true.

With the June election right around the corner, it seems overwhelming to be thinking about November’s election. Not so for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, who just this morning approved a measure for the November ballot designed to save the county’s Healthy Kids insurance program.

“That passes unanimously, and the campaign has begun,” said President Ken Yeager after the votes came in.

The measure will require two-thirds voter approval to pass a $29 parcel tax.

Dear President Obama,

I have read that you will be in San Francisco today to stump for Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election at an evening reception at the Fairmont. In addition, on Wednesday you are touring Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturing facility in Fremont. I hope while you are here you somehow see this letter. As a 34 year public school educator and a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education (elected on Nov. 4, 2008, like you), I am writing to you about the importace of including art and music education in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

District 5 city council candidate Aaron Resendez has just released an open letter to Nora Campos, demanding a public apology from the councilmember and her Chief of Staff Ryan Ford.

Last Friday, following a press conference at City Hall denouncing the malicious mailers sent out against fellow candidate Magdalena Carrasco, Resendez says Ford approached him for what can only be described as a public badmouthing. Campos’ brother, Xavier Campos, is also running against Resendez for the East Side seat.

“I am writing this open letter to you and the community to bring attention to Mr. Ford’s insulting and disrespectful behavior,” the letter reads.

The Good News: The City has a counter offer from seven out of 11 unions to take a temporary reduction in compensation (by paying more of their pension contribution temporarily on a pre-tax basis). The Not So Good News: The offer is equivalent to $14.6 million of the $118 million deficit, thus layoffs and service cuts are inevitable.

The “Not So Good News” reminds me of what Bob Brownstein said at the meeting I attended about the budget deficit hosted by the labor unions last month: “Layoffs are unavoidable since the deficit is so large.”

Last Thursday, Fly was intrigued by the “No Parking” signs up and down a three-block stretch of South First Street—right in front of Metro’s office—as they purported to be clearing the area for a movie called Church Girl. That vaguely pornographic contraction turns out to be short for I’m in Love With a Church Girl, a Christian film starring Jeffrey Atkins, better known as Ja Rule. Fly immediately buzzed off hoping to “holla, holla,” (as Ja Rule implored us to do in his big hit).

Last week, Mayor Chuck Reed entered into a very Chamber of Commerce–friendly wager with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley: If the Sharks lose the series against the Blackhawks, a basket of the finest San Jose–made foods and beverages will arrive on Daley’s desk; if the Sharks win, Reed will be elbow deep in Eli’s Cheesecake and Vienna Beef.

And whether or not this currency is anywhere near as interesting as the classics—first-born sons or freshly shaved heads—the list Reed came up with was weak sauce.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed seems to be headed for a showdown with the city’s unions over the way union pay negotiations are settled. In a May 5 San Jose Rotary Club speech, Reed called publicly for a revision of the City Charter in an audacious move to wrest power away from the unions representing the city’s firefighters and police force. Harking back to his days as a labor lawyer, Reed pointed to a clause in the Charter that forces the city into binding arbitration if and when negotiations with the unions break down.

The Mercury News editorial board recently offered its opinion on the difficulties surrounding the San Jose Airport.  The city is about to cut the ribbon on a slick new facility, but there’s not enough money to run the place.  “Airport Needs To Study All Options To Cut Costs,” read the headline.  No kidding.

The Pomp and Circumstance March is echoing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Universities across the nation have been issuing tens of thousands of parchment diplomas this month while final plans are being made for high school commencements and grad nights. With each newly issued high school and university diploma comes a time for each graduate to ponder the next stage of life.

With the unemployment rate at over 10 percent in California and Silicon Valley, too many newly minted college graduates will not have an easy time in securing a job in the area of their undergraduate course of study. At the same time, high school graduates are having an increasingly difficult time securing student slots at community colleges and public universities due to the state’s economic crisis

In 1993, city staff began looking at selling the Municipal Water system, which the City of San Jose currently owns. Municipal Water covers approximately 10 percent of the city serving portions of Council districts 2, 4 and 8. The main service provider, San Jose Water Company, a private company, provides approximately 80 percent of San Jose residents with water. The remaining 10 percent of water is provided to residents in District 2 by another private company, Great Oaks Water.

In a rare move, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren announced this morning that she is throwing her support to Deputy District Attorney Jeff Rosen in his bid to defeat sitting DA Dolores Carr. “It’s true, I don’t get involved in local races very often,” she said after making a statement in front of the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice.

Two events prompted Teresa Alvarado to run for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. One was the retirement of her mother, Blanca Alvarado, the first Latina elected to serve as a San Jose City Council member and later as a county supervisor. The other was Barack Obama’s candidacy. Looking back, Alvarado says she saw a new, more pragmatic political model emerging. “I felt like it was time for our generation to step up,” she says.

I kept wondering why it’s taking so long for Major League Baseball to make a decision on whether or not to let the A’s move to San Jose.  It’s a big and expensive decision, but one that could have been made months ago.  I assumed that the source of the delay was rounding up the money to compensate the SF Giants ownership for the territorial rights to Santa Clara County.  Unfortunately for San Jose, there may be another reason for the delay.