Hope your Fourth of July holiday was fantastic. On June 29, prior to the holiday the Council made the final vote for a balanced budget. More than 20 people spoke at the Council meeting and all but one advocated that the Council not outsource janitorial services but rather keep the janitorial staff employed, since they provide an incredibly valuable service. You would have thought janitorial was listed in the city charter by the speakers’ comments.
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Rested and Ready
Fresh off the heels of Spy-PA Gate 2010, Bobby Lopez is throwing his hat in for another run at San Jose Police Officers’ Association president next fall.
Apparently, there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the cop union’s current leadership—and Police Sgt. Lopez’s media-shy predecessor, George Beattie, in particular. There’s been a sense among the POA’s rank and file for awhile now that everything has gone to pot since the never-afraid-to-speak-his-mind Lopez stepped down.
Carr: No Respect
There were cheers and hugs in the District Attorney’s office on the Friday that Jeff Rosen’s victory over Dolores Carr was announced.
Rosen spent Monday and Tuesday walking from desk to desk shaking hands with everyone in the office, and leaving handwritten notes for those who were out. Since he’d been on leave for the campaign, Rosen wasn’t carrying his entry badge, so the DA-elect had to go to the office’s information desk and be issued a visitor’s badge.
When he returned on Tuesday, he didn’t have a county-issued parking spot, so he went in to get a placard and returned to a ticket on the dash. Rosen says he wants to talk to the officer who issued the ticket, not to ask for a break but because the timekeeper wasted no time in writing the summons.
Smoke Deflector
Pierluigi Oliverio was the first person in San Jose to see the green tidal wave coming.
Last October, the number of local pot clubs could be counted on one hand. Now, medical marijuana collectives have sprung up in every part of the city—some more legit than others. One web directory currently lists almost 70 San Jose–based medical marijuana dispensaries.
With the San Jose City council finally taking a serious look at regulating medical marijuana this week, the District 6 councilmember could not be blamed for saying, “I told you so.”
“I hate to keep going back, but if we would have done this a little earlier, everything would have been fine,” Oliverio says.
Count Continues in District 1 Supervisor’s Race
After a week of anticipation, the Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office still does not have a definitive answer for candidate for District 1 Supervisor Teresa Alvarado. Alvarado, who’s been trailing her opponent Forrest Williams since the June 8 election by fluctuating margins, spent much of the week attending county budget hearings at 70 West Hedding. Fly was seated nearby at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting when she received an email on her Blackberry saying the gap between her and Williams had shrunk to 32 votes. “Is that the last of it?” she whispered. “What the hell?” Updated
City Council Approves Mayor’s Budget
Thirty minutes before the San Jose City Council went into closed session to decide whether to impose a 10 percent pay cut on public employees, Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio addressed the large group of union members and other citizens gathered for the meeting.
“If you’re angry, it’s ok to be angry,” Oliverio said, “because the system is all screwed up.”
Last Tuesday, the City Council decided to delay its vote on the 10 percent wage cut for city employees, after five unions provided a counter-offer that they claimed would be the equivalent of the proposed cut.
However, after studying the offer, City Manager Debra Figone and City Attorney Richard Doyle determined that it was unacceptable. Figone recommended the city impose the cuts and implement the Mayor’s budget proposal.
The motion passed on an 8 to 3 vote, with council members Pyle, Kalra and Campos opposing. The Council deferred action on wage and benefit concessions with the five labor unions until the Council meeting of Tuesday, June 22.
All in the Family
It was a family affair at Magdalena Carrasco’s election night party. The former First 5 official and about 60 of her closest friends and family gathered at her campaign headquarters on Story Road to watch as the poll results rolled in.
At 8:30pm her results, which were projected onto the wall, were neck and neck with Xavier Campos. However, that didn’t stop the mother of four from offering thanks to all her family and supporters before celebrating.
Metro Endorsements: State Propositions
Yes on Prop 13: a common-sense tax break for homeowners’ earthquake retrofits. No on Prop 14: a half-baked reform that does away with party primaries. Yes on Prop 15: a step toward publicly funded elections; No on Prop 16: constitutionally mandated monopoly for PG&E. No on Prop 17: a good deal for insurance companies, but not for many Californians.
Reed Responds to Grand Jury Report on Employee Costs
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.
Walk in Their Shoes
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.”
Downtown: Movies and Moves
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).
Planet Mercury
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.
Bring Back the Vo-Tech
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
Onetime District 8 Candidate Minh Duong Vies For Dist. 7 Seat
Minh Duong, a 31-year-old furniture store owner vying to oust City Councilmember Madison Nguyen from her seat representing District 7, got a huge boost last month when the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce gave him its endorsement.
Duong says that winning the ChamberPAC’s support was a huge shock, even to him. Before this election season, the ChamberPAC consistently supported Nguyen, even backing her in her 2009 recall campaign.
Dear Chief Davis
I hope your weekend was enjoyable. I wanted to let you know that I believe that you have a very difficult job and I wanted to say thank you for your nearly 30 years of service to San Jose.
Managing an organization of approximately 1,400 people, public or private, is a challenge. It is impossible to make everyone happy internally or externally all of the time, or even some of the time. Overseeing a Police Department is one of the most difficult and demanding jobs one could have because of the high level of public scrutiny. As I have heard you say many times at the police academy graduations; wearing the police uniform puts the officer in the spotlight and all eyes are on the police officer. Our police are judged by everything from their words to the tone of their voice to body language.
With the retirement of Assistant Chief Katz there is a void in the police department leadership ranks.
Furloughs Are Not The Answer
Do the citizens of San Jose have an advocate on the San Jose City Council? At times like these I’m not so sure. When it comes to talking about the San Jose City Government budget and the efforts to close the over $116 million deficit, the focus of debate is not about providing for optimum city service levels, it’s about making payroll. Seriously, no one is really talking about quality of service, they’re talking about salaries and pensions. In San Jose, the emphasis is on filling pockets instead of potholes!
