San Jose Inside

We are living in extraordinary times. Unemployment nationally is approaching 10 percent, more troops are being requested in the war in Afghanistan, the Lion of the Senate died, and was referred to by his Republican colleagues as the best legislator in history, and the SF Giants are near a playoff berth.

Another testament to this astonishing era is the special session of the California legislature recently called by Gov. Schwarzenegger to reshape education as we have known it.

Last week, I chose to attend both outreach meetings regarding the issue of retirement board governance, so I could hear concerns first- hand instead of reading a staff report. The possibility of changing the makeup of the current retirement board was presented by the consultant. The biggest change, if adopted, would be to remove city councilmembers from the board and add “independent” board members with a finance background.

Since 99.95 percent of city residents did not attend the meetings I thought I would share a synopsis of the comments that were made by attendees

It’s San Jose Inside’s weekend-long open forum, where any comment on any topic is welcome. What’s on your mind?

If there is one word to describe the theme of this year’s San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival, it has to be “connectivity,” and not just because the festival has landed T-Mobile as its title sponsor. At this week’s press conference for the lead-up to the festival that takes place Sept. 20-27, the word “connection” and its derivatives were uttered multiple times by all three participants: festival CEO Marcela Davison Aviles, artistic director Linda Ronstadt and headline performer for the Sept. 25 concert, Joan Baez.

Representatives of the city’s police, firefighters, and city workers unions and retirees are up in arms over plans to restructure the boards that oversee their pensions. Their pension funds lost almost one-quarter of their value in the recent stock market plummet, leaving them with $3.2 billion. Now the city is planning to replace its representatives on the oversight board with council-appointed delegates who do not work for the city or do business with it.

If it wasn’t for Ted Kennedy, I’d probably be unemployed now. You see, when I was in college I wanted to be a journalist. Unfortunately and tragically, that’s not a place these days for those looking for job security. Like a scene from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, I can see my guardian angel pointing to a cubicle in some half-filled newsroom as the place I would have toiled if Kennedy had never lived.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi covered a lot of territory in a brief visit to the San Jose Rotary’s weekly lunch meeting today—from the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy to the empowerment of young women (the subject of her book, “Know Your Power,” which she signed at the event). But she clearly wanted the audience to take home one message: “We must have health care reform.”

The San Jose city council voted to begin the process of establishing a Clean Tech Demonstration Center at yesterday’s city council meeting, and it might not cost the city much money at all. The council decided to start this process by adopting a resolution authorizing the city manager to apply for federal assistance. Sources would include up to $4 million from the U.S Department of Commerce and up to $5 million from the U.S Department of Energy.

“Recession cranks up pressure on white men.”  So reads the subhead of a front page piece that appeared in the Aug. 23 edition of the Mercury News. According to Bay Area News Group reporters Mike Swift and Josh Richman, there seems to be something brewing in our nation’s “troubled soul.”

“Many say the tempest over health care has its origin in the new administration’s breathtaking pace of change.” Who are these “many?” The article doesn’t really say.

The Caravan Lounge has poured strong drinks on South Almaden Avenue in downtown San Jose for at least 45 years, but ever since current property owners Jan Chargin and Lynn M. Bohnen asked the Redevelopment Agency in 2007 to buy the building, rumors have run rampant about what would finally happen to the classic dive bar. The San Jose City Council was scheduled to vote today on whether the RDA should fork over $1,120,000 for the property, plus an extra $187,000 in “relocation” costs to current Caravan operator, George Rich.

However, the meeting adjourned 15 minutes ago with no mention of the Caravan.

San Jose moved one step closer yesterday to implementing a citywide Bring Your Own Bag policy. A four-member City Council committee voted unanimously to prohibit grocery stores and major retailers from handing out plastic bags to their customers. Taking the issue one step further, they also voted to ban most paper bags, unless they are made of at least 50 percent recycled material. Even then, customers will be required to pay a fee in order to receive the paper bags.

I am endorsing former Franklin-McKinley Superintendent Larry Aceves for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I will explain my reasons later.

Max Rafferty, Wilson Riles, Bill Honig and Delaine Eastin have all served as California’s Superintendents of Public Instruction. Jack O’Connell is in the last 15 months of his reign as the current office holder. All were influential leaders in my career as a teacher and principal.

Very few people ever get to be called “champion.” Few deserve the label. A champion is one who lifts up others. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who passed away on Aug.11, was a champion. Here are a few comments and passages from those who sang her praises at the various memorial services.

One of the most important responsibilities a councilmember has is working on constituent issues. So far, my office has managed 4,675 constituent issues, which I refer to as “cases.” I set up a web database that allows constituents to track our case work in real time online. In most cases we are successful in resolving the issue or concern. In other cases, constituents just want to share their comments on a particular matter.

Recently, I had a request that came from a constituent who is a professional in the commercial real estate industry and is a veteran at purchasing property.

This is SJI’s weekly open forum, where you set the agenda. What’s on your mind?