San Jose Inside

UPDATED: City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio released a memo Tuesday proposing that San Jose adopt an ordinance to regulate and tax the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana at dispenseries in San Jose.

The memo, which the District 6 councilmember will speak about at next Wednesday’s Rules Committee meeting, asks the council to discuss allowing medical cannabis establishments in specifically zoned locations within the city. It also outlines his proposal for the taxation of doctor-prescribed uses of pot, most notably that all tax revenue generated would be earmarked for the police department and street maintenance.

Didn’t know Mission Ale House was closing this week? Hey, don’t worry, neither did the people who work there. “I was out of town spreading my father’s ashes, and came home to no job,” says Johnny Van Wyk, who this year closed his club Johnny V’s and moved his live-music bookings to Mission, where he was general manager.

An affable former security guard, bartender and doorman at the popular downtown bar Johnny V’s is eyeing a run for a seat on the San Jose City Council. Tim Hennessey has generated backing from a number of angry downtown club owners, and this December, with no political experience, he’ll start officially vying for a position representing the most high profile council district of the nation’s tenth largest city.

“More than 10 cents of every dollar in property tax collected in California last year—more than $4 billion—was intercepted and spent before reaching the school districts, fire departments, municipal general funds and other agencies.” So begins real estate developer and former school board trustee Doug Kaplan’s article, “Redevelopment Boondoggle,” recently published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Much of the news in recent days has been dominated by the issues surrounding the San Jose Police Department.   Last week, several colleagues and I sought greater transparency and disclosure of police reports, but by a 5-6 margin,we narrowly failed to persuade our colleagues to adopt the ordinance proposed by the “Sunshine” Task Force. On Sunday, the Mercury News released a video documenting the use of force by SJPD officers in the arrest of San Jose State University student Phoung Ho. Ash Kalra, Madison Nguyen, and I immediately called for a full investigation and—if any criminal charges of the officers are sought—a grand jury process open to public view.   
 

The monolithic structure of public education is resistant to change. As evidence the system continues to use an antiquated calendar from our agrarian past, and it organizes school districts in historic slices that make no logical sense.

I agree with SJI readers who believe the system of public education is poorly organized. This nonsensical structure causes redundant expenditures and weaker student outcomes than necessary. Reorganizing these districts with more wisdom and thought, I truly believe, would be beneficial to the goal of increasing student achievement

A variety of issues were discussed at last week’s council meeting that dealt with city finances. Jennifer Maguire, the Director of our Budget Office, shared that the ending fund balance this year is 1.3 percent. The city has always had an ending fund balance for as long as anyone can remember.

UPDATED. The San Jose Mercury News posted a video on its website last night that shows San Jose police officers beating a San Jose State student with a baton and using a Taser on him during a Sept. 3 arrest. According to the accompanying article, the force was used “even though the suspect was on the ground, and apparently offering no physical threat to the officers.”

Following a brief hiatus, San Jose Inside’s free-for-all open forum is back in business. Comments on any topic are welcome.

San Jose’s Green Vision program may have hit a snag. Bob Garzee, one of the key players in the city’s push to create a network of public-private partnerships, has been sued by Union Bank of San Francisco. Garzee, the CEO of Synegry EV, Inc., had been planning to create a technology incubator in the city with which his company could develop electric vehicles. But when his line of credit came up for review late this June, it was denied

In this real estate market, builders are having to taking it to the streets to sell condos in downtown San Jose. Downtown workers may have noticed a troop of young, attractive, sign-wielding “protesters” marching up and down Santa Clara Street last Friday afternoon, chanting slogans like “Less Dues, Better Views” while handing out superhero-adorned pamphlets. This intrusive if creative bit of urban guerrilla marketing was paid for by Barry Swenson, whose company is trying the get the word out about its City Heights high-rise condo development at 175 W. St. James St.

Bottom-up-reform for improving education in Silicon Valley is more effective than top-down-reform efforts, however there is a paucity of examples of the former. In our climate of entrepreneurial know-how one would think there would be a bounty of examples of schools rearranging the apples on the proverbial cart to innovate and improve achievement for all. Yet, school the way we knew it back before the Apple II was introduced is still the norm.

The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, which I sit on, had a special meeting last Wednesday night. Usually, this committee meets during the day. This special meeting was being sponsored by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) and the City Council stemming from the alleged racial profiling arrests Downtown for pubic intoxication. This is one of two meetings to be held at night to elicit public opinion about our police force. The next one will be spring 2010

Morgan Hill tow truck driver Tony Librers, the stepbrother of District 3 council candidate Tim Hennessey, was shot last night and is on life support.

Article on Tony Librers shooting in Morgan Hill Observer.

The International Economic Development Council had the highest praise for San Jose and Mayor Chuck Reed. At its annual conference in Reno, Nevada, it named the city’s Green Vision sustainable development program the best in the entire United States.