San Jose Inside

Last week, at the city council meeting, I removed an item from the consent calendar on the agenda for discussion. As you may remember from my blog about San Jose’s million-dollar golf nets, consent calendar items do not have individual discussion, but rather are voted on all at the same time. If one wants to discuss a consent item, you have to “remove” it for discussion.

The item I removed was asking $993,876 for the library to spend over the course of seven years on an online tutoring service for kids.

This is a special Sunday edition of SJI’s open forum. Any topic is fair game. What’s on your mind?

Mayor Chuck Reed is in Washington to tell the Administration what he thinks of the stimulus package. The feds probably wish he hadn’t come at all. When asked at a meeting at the Brookings Institute how $79 million in federal stimulus funding has helped San Jose deal with the recession, Reed answered, “It’s been a very minimal impact.”

“The money you give us to put people to work is not creating long-term jobs,” Reed complained

Following a cell phone video that shows SJSU student Phuong Ho being hit with batons and tased by the SJPD officers, the department claimed he was resisting arrest. Enhanced audio of the video taken by one of Ho’s housemates on his cellphone seems to tell a different story.

As the saying goes, “All of the best things in life are free.”  Next week, San Jose merchants will have a new opportunity to promote their businesses and attract new customers.  And…it’s free.

I hope that the various viewpoints expressed on my blog the last few weeks have been instructive to readers and leaders. It is obvious we have a schism of opinion relative to race and the elimination of the achievement gap. The polarity of responses mirrors the divide we have on many issues in this great country.

I trust it is not too presumptuous of me to postulate that we who reside in San Jose want all children, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity or religion to have pathways to a successful life. Can we all agree on this outcome?

Last week, the council had public hearings regarding the upcoming 2009-2010 Redevelopment budget. Mayor Reed ensured that the public had both a day and night session to attend, allowing more people to participate. In addition, tonight (Nov. 16) at 6pm the mayor is hosting an additional public meeting at City Hall to garner feedback on the RDA budget. 

During last week’s public hearings, the usual lobbyists—those who are paid to speak at council meetings on behalf of special interests—attended and spoke. The lobbyists have also been known to orchestrate the other speakers, giving them colored stickers to wear and scripts to read from.

Groups representing San Jose’s diverse ethnic communities have called for the resignation of Police Chief Rob Davis, claiming that the police use excessive force in dealing with minorities. “There needs to be a change in the culture of the current police force, and we don’t think that Police Chief Davis can make that change,” wrote Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance.

UPDATE: SJPOA President Bobby Lopez says activists calling for Davis to resign are “well-intentioned but misinformed.”

A number of posts over the past week on ProtectSanJose.com,  a blog run by the Police Officers Association (SJPOA), have effectively called into question a series of San Jose Mercury News articles about use of force by SJPD.

The Merc series started with the Oct. 24 posting of a cell-phone video that seems to show SJPD officers beating and Tasing a Vietnamese SJSU exchange student while he is pinned to the floor. The series culminated with a Sunday package a few days later, headlined “Mercury News investigation: San Jose police often use force in resisting-arrest cases.”

Rosa Pérez, Chancellor of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District, announced that she will be retiring because of poor health. Pérez has battled respiratory problems in the past. Her retirement will go into effect on June 30, when her current contract expires.

Pérez was something of a trailblazer at SJECC. She is the first Latina to serve as Chancellor on a permanent basis, and she is also one of the nation’s very few openly gay chancellors. But her tenure at the head of SJECC has not been without its controversies. She has come into conflict with the California School Employees Association for downsizing staff because of the economic crisis.

On Halloween night, a twelve year old was shot in the head and a thirteen year old was stabbed.  The response on the part of the San Jose Police force was swift.  Several suspects were taken into custody within 36 hours.

Days later, 150 people gathered together to protest these acts of violence.  Big deal…there should have been 15,000 people marching, from all four corners of San Jose, demanding an end to “turf-related violence.”

Historically, civil rights issues have been a struggle. Yet solvable they are. My epiphany after last week’s unexpected tsunami of racist comments on SJI in response to my post was, sadly, that we have not come as far as I thought we had as an enlightened community. However, the bright rays of hope that we can still succeed in the goal of eliminating the achievement gap were built into the altruistic beliefs spoken by the students who are engaged in their quest to become teachers for the children in San Jose.

Last week, the council had a special meeting to discuss the upcoming $96 million budget shortfall. $96 million is the equivalent of eliminating all library, park and community center positions citywide. My fellow councilmembers and I gave the city manager direction on how best we think the budget gap could be closed.

San Jose Inside’s open forum is open for business. Comments and opinions on any subject are welcome.

There’s one thing that everyone in city government agrees on—the deficit is growing. It now stands at $96.4 million, the worst it’s been since the dotcom bust, and there seems to be no end in sight as it inches ahead to the $100 million milestone.

Last night, the City Council voted 10-1 to share the burden more or less equally between three distinct sectors. Inevitably, the taxpayer is up there on the frontlines, with several new taxes proposed