San Jose Inside

Under the city charter, the city auditor has independent authority to carry out examination of finances, documents and operations of any city department, other than the office of any elected official (too bad about that exception). A well run and honest city auditor’s department, as we have in San Jose, is the citizens’ best guard against corruption and financial malfeasance as well as overspending and misspending of public money by civil servants. To be effective, the auditor must remain separate from political control and be able to “strike at will,” something that is recognized in the mandate of the city charter.

City Hall Diary

This week at council we discussed the upcoming 2008-2009 budget process. 
 
The budget for San Jose is a year-round process tracking the revenue that comes into the city, like sales tax and construction and conveyance tax (C and C), and expenditures that come from the General Fund (non-restricted money), or capital expenditures (restricted money) like building new libraries. 

Something being proposed in Florida and Michigan for the Democratic primary selection is often utilized in golf where it’s called a “mulligan.” It is, indeed, a very human reaction and a plausible escape route. But beware the easy route—it’s full of peril. We have seldom seen it in San Jose politics before, but in the battle for “Little Saigon,” we may have another look at the concept of the “do-over” and the results may be anything but satisfactory.

City Hall Diary

As some of you many know via Sal Pizarro of the Mercury News I have grown a beard. I stopped shaving the morning of the mayor’s State of the City speech. I joked with Sal that I was not going to shave until we fixed the structural budget deficit. Getting our city’s finances in order is the number one priority and will take hard work and more community outreach. By that time, my beard will end up competing with Moses or the members of the band ZZ Top.

If our city council’s holier-than-thou moral army member Pete Constant really wants to put a stop to any opportunities for “sexual misconduct and lewd behavior” in the Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Library, why doesn’t he advocate the installation of men’s room toilet stalls with walls all the way to the floor in case Larry Craig comes to town? Or why doesn’t he work to stop distribution of applications for the Congressional page program there in case some hapless San Jose student gets an intern position with the likes of Congressman Foley or Senator Vitter? Oh, wait: Craig, Foley, and Vitter are members of the Republican moral army too. Ironically, Constant’s plan to restrict internet access at the library will presumably mean that the more than 1.25 million websites mentioning the extracurricular activities of these three men—Craig (778,000 Google hits), Foley (75,000 Google hits) and Vitter (400,000 Google hits)—will be on his porn censorship list.

City Hall Diary

Several months ago I wrote a blog “Try It Before You Buy It,” where I spoke about the importance of making sure that the city has the option of using technology before actually purchasing it. I shared how large organizations struggle with information technology (IT) implementations when dealing with vendors who often make promises that differ from the actual results received. I also pointed out how the VTA and City of San Jose have spent millions on unwise technology decisions to purchase software.

The $100,000 consultants’ report to the city on the Mexican Heritage Plaza (MHP) has been completed and is available on the city’s website. However, its more than one hundred pages raise more questions than they answer. Many of those questions have to do with the consultant who wrote the report, Maribel Alvarez, and her qualifications, conflicts of interest, methods of data collection and how she was chosen.

Is it me, or does it seem that all good, big ideas in this City are here today, gone tomorrow?  I think so many good ideas fizzle in San Jose, and I really want to know why.

A music hall was once on the forefront of the city council agenda and there were debates in both the council and supervisors chambers on whether to build it downtown or at the county fairgrounds, and then: nothing.  It was a great idea but it seemed to vanish into thin air. House of Blues was pumped-up for a time and never materialized. We are all still waiting for another music venue.

Purchasing the Future

The year of 2008 is already shaping up as a fascinating one, but tough decisions are ahead. BART, professional sports and our incredibly increasing deficits—state, local and national—are going to loom very large.

City Hall Diary

As I bid 2007 goodbye and welcome 2008, I think of the many issues that my colleagues and I will be working on in one way or another. Whether balancing the budget, protecting our resources like industrial land or implementing the mayor’s Green Vision, among others, it will take collaboration, perseverance and, above all else, a good sense of humor to keep us all in check.

Thousands Flee San Jose in Panic as Forecasters Predict Winds and Rain

As weather conditions deteriorated late Thursday with hundreds of tiny raindrops and breezy winds, an otherwise calm and subdued holiday season turned into panic and mayhem as thousands frantically took to the roads, trying to get out of the city in search of dry land.

As a New Year dawns (I love using that phrase so full of hope), it is time to take stock of our city and community. There are things that we should hope for in the New Year; and, more than that, we should work fervently for them to occur. It is critical to build in the present if you want a future to be proud of.

Councilman Williams Vows To “Git ’r Done”

Following through on his promise to save a costly police substation pledged to his district, Councilman Forrest Williams offered a compromise to the council that kept the project within budget by eliminating the public art element, ammunition and squad cars.

“I said I would find a way to ‘git ‘r done,’” said Mr. Williams. “And if these cops can go without bullets and cars for awhile, they can certainly do without the foo-foo, artsy-smartsy crap.”

I have been to the San Jose Civic Auditorium once in my eight years of living in the city: a performance by towering jazz giants Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter about five years ago. A big jazz fan all my life, I have been lucky enough to see many of the greats, from Miles Davis to Weather Report, but the best jazz concert I have ever been to was definitely the one in the San Jose Civic that night. In fact, it was the most sublime musical experience of any type I have had, and that’s a hard list to top

It seems like we have a battle over art again in San Jose. Not over what type of art, but, rather, whether to have it in the new police substation.  I, for one, am happy not to discuss the recall in District 7 or the loss of our esteemed title of the “Safest Big City” in this yuletide season and get to the real issues that determine our future.

There is the fundamental question that often comes to the fore in the political life of a representative: Do you vote what you think is right or do you vote the will of your constituents? Madison Nguyen is caught in this situation. According to news reports this week, 2,000 people attended a meeting and rally on the naming of the Little Saigon/Saigon Business District.