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Key Issues & The Budget:

Having listened to the concerns, hopes and ideas of our citizens, along with participating in many formal and informal forums and community meetings, and having attended City Council Meetings, and even connecting with the Mayor’s Office regarding a particularly contentious issue for the people of District 10, it is clear that we have substantial issues with an open status as to whether we can bring the right resources to the table to successfully conduct the people's business.  I am comfortable that we have the personnel and resources to address the challenges before us in Ground Transportation, Aviation Services, Housing, Caring for our Homeless, Land Development, Business Development, Parks and Recreation, Environment, Public Safety, Fire and Emergency Services,  and anything and everything else that falls under the auspices of County and City government.  Unfortunately, in this time of great change, some voices, who do not represent the best interests of the people of San Jose, are having a disproportionate impact on the decisions we are making about the future of our great City.

     

Any hope of understanding the City of San Jose's true priorities, requires a thorough reading of the prevailing 1,100+ page 2015-2016 Operating and Capital Budget, and comparing that with the Mayor’s Proposed Operating Budget for 2016-2017, so  please click here for a copy of the 2016-2017 Proposed Budget in Brief .  With a combined total budget of approximately $3 Billion for Capital spending and Operating expenses, our City, the nation’s 10th largest, has the operating funds, employees (~6,000) and relationships with the private sector and NGO’s to get the job done.  And yet, an understanding of the overriding issue of our City starts with a question.  What do we want to look like by the year 2040?   To address issues involving our housing, transportation, education, public safety, etc., we need to ask if we want to be a City that is diverse in our age groups, education, occupations, ethnicity, and culture?   I believe that the answer to this question must be an emphatic YES.

   

Having traveled all over the world, it is clear to me that we are blessed to be able to call this place home.  There is no other place like, California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Jose specifically.   On any given day, we can see the very best mix of conservative and progressive thinking coming together to solve really tough problems.  That said, I believe that the picture of the future we want for our children is at serious risk.   I believe we need to ensure that every decision we make ensures that our community includes teachers, professors, carpenters, accountants, mechanics, plumbers, bankers, accountants, biologists, investors,  chemists, drivers, chefs, servers, pilots, coders, analysts, electricians, plumbers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, software developers, doctors, nurses, religious leaders, and that this will include our seniors, middle-aged and young adults, singles, teenagers, and children living side-by-side right here, not on the periphery, or the outside.

 KEY ISSUES

EDUCATION

Whether you have children in K-12 public, public/private, or private schools, or whether you are of voting age and in college, you know that Education is perhaps the most important issue of our day.  While Cities are not directly involved in the management of Education, we all have a vested interest in ensuring that our children are prepared for the new economy, while not forsaking the need to support and encourage the creative and physical elements of each child's education.  We all have a vested interest in property development decisions affecting where some schools are built, and that our children are protected from modern day experimentation with devices that have the potential to cause physical and even emotional harm.   Our City also plays a significant role in ensuring that the people who are teaching our children can afford to live and serve in the community they serve, versus commuting in from outside cities and counties.  And finally, we need to be an active partner in the discussion about the cost of higher education that is burdening far too many of our young adults with mountains of debt.

HOUSING

Thanks to the growth of the economy across the Bay Area, and the resulting job growth, our housing and rental markets have experienced a prolonged period of value and cost appreciation along with an ever shrinking supply of "affordable" housing.  Approximately a third of our rental units are subject to Appartment Rent Ordinance (ARO) with annual increases limited to 5%, down from 8%, but not at the Housing Department's recommendation of limiting it to CPI (Consumer Price Index).  All of these rental properties were built by 1979, and this does not include duplexes.  The rest of San Jose's multiunit rental properties are subject to NO rental control limits at all, with tenants experiencing enormous rate increases that result in evictions.  Finally, the City's most affordable housing is provided by mobile home parks, with these properties vulnerable to demolition to make way for high density housing with street level retail.  I have personally spoken with far too many people who have lost their lease, with some living in their cars and using some of our comunity centers to shower and clean up.  We quite simply must have a solution that ensures that we maintain diversity in our community including all age groups, occupations, cultures, while fully and fairly accounting for any displacements of people who lose the places where they raised their children, grew their gardens, and made their memories.  We can do this if we commit to doing what's right, over what's expedient.  Our ratio of jobs to housing is out of wack with less jobs than housing.  This means that we are Silicon Valley's #1 bedroom community.  As we try to equalize jobs with housing, we need local developers that have a heart for the people, and with the will to do what some view as impossible.  We need our landlord/tenant relationships to be great.  This can be done, if we aim high, and are relentless. 

ENVIRONMENT

The City's role in the environment is very significant.  I am very concerned that the relationship we have with developers, be very open to the public.  With immense pressure to create additional housing, we need to be ever more dilligent, so as to preserve the amazing landscape that frames all of our technological leadership.   As a part of this, we must protect places like Coyote Valley and our foothills for endless sprawl.  And, perhaps the City's most important role relates to our waste water treatment plant, and the permits we issue to waste management companies that do business within our borders.  Due to a contract issued by Milpitas to Waste Management to begin dumping that city's garbage in San Jose's Guadalupe Landfill in 2017, there is very high visibility on the issues associated with landfills being located very close to residential housing, parks, and water tributaries, along with the impact on roadways and the increased risk to children crossing streets in the drive path of garbage ladened trucks.  It is imperative that we achieve zero waste in the future, and in the interim, that we do everything possible to minimize the impact to the environment, resulting from adding to our landfill.  As the City currently moves solid waste from the water treatment plant's drying ponds to Newby Island for burial, the City should ensure that this task does not move inland.

PUBLIC SAFETY

The City's role in public safety is multifaceted and crucial.  Unfortunately, San Jose's front line employees, across multiple departments, have born the brunt of a mean spirited pension reform process, driven by an inappropriate use of a ballot initiative, which was ultimately ruled illegal, but not before causing a staggering loss of employees. No impact was more pronounced and noticable than the loss of approximately one third of our Police ranks.  Most everyone now sees the result of this misguided experiment, of failing to honor our word.   The legal costs have been enormous, and they are still ongoing.  The opportunity costs are even greater as a billionaire and disgruntled past employee continue to argue against the alternative pension reform settlement between the City and its employees that saves $30 Billion over 30 years, creating a fiscally sustainable retirement system and gets us back on track to start the long rebuilding process that is required.  There is no other way to say this, but that we must never again allow people, that cannot bring trust to the negotiation table, to represent the people of San Jose in such crucial matters as our public safety.   Even though we are at a time of high vulnerability, we also need to forge ahead with the work of OES (Office of Emergency Services), so that we will be prepared from a communications and infrastructure standpoint, and have paid and volunteer staffing, fully ready to respond to any civic emergency or natural disaster.

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