Oliverio for Supervisor 2018

Independent - Transparent - Fiscally Responsible

Police Budget: We Get, You Get

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For this weeks blog, I am continuing the discussion about providing a fixed percentage of the budget towards police. A nickname for this might be, “We Get, You Get.” The name refers to when the aggregate budget grows, then funding for the most critical service a city can provide—police—would grow. (Providing a sewer system is a close second for the most critical service).

Some may say, “What happens if the total budget doubles? Then we would be spending too much on police?” My first thought to this question is, “So what?” So what if the budget grows and additional police officers and other related expenses of police force could be added.

But let’s start with reality. The reality is local government will not have a windfall or increased tax revenues. Property values are not going to catapult and consumer spending is finicky, as it has recently stalled. We may indeed see the growth of tax revenues outpace expenses after pension reform, but it will certainly not be double. So, if tax revenues for the general fund do grow 10 percent, then police would get an additional 10 percent. If we have a severe recession and revenues fall, then the police department would have to choose how best to handle it by possibly postponing purchases of equipment or not filling positions left vacant by retirement.

Back to my main point: There is insatiable demand for police services; from stopping the most egregious violent crime to issuing speeding citations. If we value the ability to walk down the street and know that criminals’ fear of police will stop an assault on an innocent person, then that is a good problem to have.

Too often elected officials are asked to choose between one program and another. Rather than eliminating discretionary spending across the board, more often cuts are implemented. However, at some point a city’s core competency suffers. A fixed percentage of the budget would allow for funding to be on autopilot.

Some may say, “Why not carve out other city departments at a fixed percentage?” Nonsense. At some point we have to choose one over another, and police provide the most value. That value translates to safety and, if marketed well, economic development. Coming up with a formula for more than one department would never happen and I do not believe residents would support it.

The Social Contract

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In society we have chosen to give up some of our liberty or ability to do anything we want for the the trade off of having more opportunity under law. If we do not like the rules of society than we can move away to a remote mountain and have more freedom, but one would give up certain benefits we have in society based on law.

The social contract is reinforced through friends, family, neighbors and those who interact with us in society.  However, the enforcement is done primarily by our law enforcement personnel and internationally by our military.

Police are the ones responsible to respond when individuals choose to cause harm to others’ physical well being. Without adequate police, people may choose to break the contract, whether it be by comitting a robbery, an assault or murder. From my viewpoint, police maintain the social contract. No one else carries the authority to do so, and ideally, always in a fair manner, which carries a high level of responsibility. A high level of responsibility needs to be compensated well, in part to avoid temptations.

In comparison to other city departments, the police department is the only one that maintains order so those who are weak do not get picked on and those that are law abiding can go about their way. Would we want to return to the Wild West when gun fights occurred outside the saloon between individuals? Who would want to worry about those things today at Happy Hour?  Police on patrol deter crime by simply being visible. This deterrence, I believe, leads to less incidents that require emergency services since the inhibition of criminal behavior means less use of the 911 system.

Government does have enforcement through regulation, but only law enforcement really enforces the regulation with the possible outcome of incarceration. It is a great power and must always be overseen by civilians who allow autonomy but expect fairness to be carried out.

Sadly, during these years of low revenue and escalating pension costs we must always consider what we can afford. There is a higher cost to being out of control. The social contract extends to our police, as that they must be diligent, be fair, and understand fiscal realities we face, and thus our ability to pay. At the same time, the policy makers must prioritize with the social contract in mind, not to be held hostage but to always put this in the balance with other choices.

Technology can help with enforcement by using surveillance cameras to ticket red-light runners, capture vandals on video to prosecute property crimes and use video footage for gathering evidence for prosecution of other types of crimes. The ability to maintain a civil society will evolve with technology. If we do not accept technology than we will fall short of our goals since we will never have police covering all places all the time.

In other matters: Tonight at City Hall there will be a showing of the documentary film, Bag It, with a discussion to follow with the Director of Environmental Services. The film presents the impact of plastics in society and their ramifications to our health. To learn more email tina.west@sanjoseca.gov

Congratulations to San Jose Made and San Jose Eats who brought what seemed to be a few thousand people to Downtown on Saturday afternoon for a pop-up retail and food truck event.  The event also had the impact of filling every restaurant in San Pedro Square. A sign posted out front of one restaurant read: Closed-Out of Food.

Police Chief Recruitment Community Meeting

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I attended the first community meeting regarding the selection of the next San Jose Police Chief on Tuesday,  Aug. 24 at the Roosevelt Community Center.  Approximately 21 people attended. Attendees were divided into small groups to discuss five questions. I did not see any police officers however they may have been in attendance but remained anonymous.

Translation services were available in both Spanish and Vietnamese and printed material was provided in alternative languages as well. The cost for the recruiter is $26,000 to conduct the search including interviewing prospective candidates. San Jose is also paying up to $13,000 for travel expenses for all prospective candidate interviews since this is a national search.  The goal is to pick a new Police Chief by the end of 2010.

In addition stakeholder outreach will be done with specific groups including La Raza, AACI (Asian Americans for Community Involvement) and PACT (People Acting in Community Together).

We have great internal candidates for Police Chief, like Captain Gary Kirby, Deputy Chief Diane Urban and Assistant Chief Chris Moore.

Here is some feedback given from all the tables that night:

What are the most important issues that you would like the new Police Chief to address?
Transparency; oversight; importance of the Independent Police Auditor; mental health issues; acknowledge good officers; more access to police records; police rotations should be longer to promote relationships between officers and residents; Gangs; racial profiling; police brutality; work with “immigrant” community.

What experience and track record should the new Police Chief have?
Experience managing a budget and under-budget; mediation skills; understands community view and police view; long history in one geography; trilingual or at least bilingual; history of promoting diverse officers; someone who changed perception of police from negative to positive; street-cop experience; manage complex organization; experience with a multi-cultural community; success in lowering crime however some thought statistics lie and this was unfair to use crime stats; track record of firing police.

Is there anything else you would like the City to consider when selecting the new Police Chief?
Should be pro-immigrant; skilled communicator; less on results more on initiatives; know the background/did their homework on issues facing San Jose; sustainable results over a period of time; at least five years of experience running large organization; speak in simple English not bureaucratic-speak; should recruit new police officers from the immigrant community; mail residents letters with the name of their local police officers and of course a sense of humor.

What are you willing to do or contribute to help the new Police Chief?
Attend more meetings; build bridges in the community; provide a report card on how new police chief is doing; pass out information; assist with outreach; be open minded.

The four groups provided feedback that essentially requires our next police chief to walk on water.

Does this feedback match your viewpoints?

There are three community meetings left:

Monday, Aug. 30, 7-9pm
San Jose City Hall Committee Rooms

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 6-8pm
West Valley Library
1243 San Tomas Aquino Rd

Thursday, Sept. 2, 6-8pm
Eastside Union High District Office
830 North Capitol Ave

You can give your feedback to these five questions via this email:info@tbcrecruiting.com

Or fill out an online Community-Police Chief survey by clicking this link.

Finally congratulations to the Mayor and RDA for locating another company in San Jose. Baxano, a medical device company, moved from Mountain View to San Jose. The CEO mentioned that one of the reasons for selecting San Jose was the proximity to our airport plus getting all of their permits in five days.

Dear Chief Davis

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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. SJPD has the privilege of having many skilled men and women through the ranks who work hard and are committed to the safety of our residents. These dedicated police officers can and will rise to the level of leadership as needed. This is the benefit of having high standards of recruitment and vetting during the police academy and field training program. These high standards are a result of the investment of approximately $129,000 made by the city of San Jose into each new officer’s training and thus we risk a loss of approximately $10 million with the layoff of 80 of our most recently hired police officers.

As you know I have been on the Council for three years and in that time there has been challenging public discourse around SJPD. Each time SJPD needed an articulate speaker, for example on police records, or a technical speaker on the Bobby Burroughs police sub-station, and one person’s performance stands out. Again and again, whether at a council meeting, committee meeting, community or special meeting, I remember one person in particular always being there by your side or by himself defending, explaining and promoting the SJPD. This person was always on target and therefore respected by many officers from all backgrounds.

That was and is Capt. Gary Kirby. Time and time again Capt. Kirby rises to the occasion. Chief Davis, I believe you have a unique opportunity to promote from within a respected member of the SJPD. From my perspective Capt. Kirby is just missing the title of “Assistant Chief” since he already performs by your side and has lived up to the term, “got your back,” but the “back” to me refers to the entire police department.

Thank you for your consideration Chief Davis. Stay Safe.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

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Last Wednesday night, the Public Safety committee held a special meeting regarding our police officers. The city manager began by sharing the amount of effort and outreach that has transpired the last few months with city initiatives with regards to our police department.

For the last two years, certain individuals have been lambasting our police force with charges of racial profiling and excessive force. Our police force has more than 400,000 engagements a year with San Jose residents and 99.8 percent of those have no complaints. The City of San Jose has an internal affairs department and an Independent Police Auditor (IPA) for complaints about the police department. With a city as large as ours, we are aware that complaints will no doubtfully happen. However, the complaints are few and far between, and that is something the city can be proud of.

Over the last two years I did not rush to judgment on condemning our police but rather listened to all points to view. As a Councilmember in a representative democracy I represent my entire district population and not just those who attend meetings as 99.5 percent of residents are not able to attend meetings or more so do not want to attend meetings.

Several members of the public spoke before the council and were generally supportive of the police. The speakers were San Jose residents from the West Side and the East Side who appreciated the efforts of our police force. One theme of change however was lengthening the rotation of a police officer from six months to some time longer so as to build even better relationships with residents.

The length of rotations is an issue that cannot be changed with a snap of the finger but rather a negotiation with the police union. I look forward to hearing more about the pros and cons on this specific matter.

Daniel Pham’s father spoke emotionally about his deceased son who suffered from mental illness and his loss. Dealing with the mentally ill even with specific training is very difficult as it is hard to reason with a delusional mind in a stressful situation. My friend from elementary school who suffered from mental illness committed suicide last year thus I have some understanding of the challenges with mental illness.

Another interesting point was raised by two different speakers. One was a Christian biker who was dressed sort of like a Hells Angel. He mentioned that his group had been stopped time to time by the police. He said if he was a police officer he would stop the bikers as well. He pointed out, however, that you should speak to a police officer the way you would like to be spoken to, like the Golden Rule.

As someone who grew up in San Jose I was always taught by immigrant parents to be polite to the police and I have been. It is only since being a Councilmember that I heard a person can verbally throw profanities at a police officer and that is acceptable. Well, it would not be acceptable with my Mom and Dad. An African American speaker who himself pointed out his large Afro said that he has been stopped by the police for decades both on the East Coast and the West Coast based on his appearance.

These two speakers got me thinking that is not just police stopping individuals but also the residents who call the police. Police respond to calls from our residents about suspicious activities and people. Therefore really all of San Jose is responsible. So, when you hear those that are critical of the police they are also critical at the character and prejudgements of our own San Jose residents and need to look in the mirror.

As far as our new IPA, I voted no along with Mayor Reed and Councilmember Constant. We had four well qualified candidates to choose from and I preferred another candidate. I do wish our new IPA great success for the 2.5 year term and beyond.

It is with deep sorrow that Chief Katz will be leaving/retiring from our police force. A straight shooter and a gentleman, he will be missed. My only request is that Captain Kirby please stay for the sake of stability and morale. I would make the same pitch to Chief Katz but I think it is too late.

Here Come the Cuts

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The City Manager will release the list of proposed cuts to balance the city budget today (March 29). These cuts are based on no concessions from any of the labor unions nor savings gained through outsourcing of janitorial services (among others) to save money.

Money saved from outsourcing could help pay for library hours or the aquatics program, for example. The question of concessions has been out there for months and could be included in the budget. Agreement would need to be reached in early April since layoff notices would start going out April 19. If concessions are made then some of these cuts could be avoided but in lieu of an agreement in hand here are some of the proposed/likely cuts.

As it stands now, 802 positions would be eliminated, of which 656 are filled positions, which closes the deficit of $118.2 million. In addition, there were services that were funded last year with one-time funds ($7,476,000), such as library hours, community centers and the SJPD horse-mounted unit, which will be going away as well, accounting for 77 filled positions.

Library:
Eliminate 104 positions to save $7.4 million in 2010-2011 and $7.9 million in 2011-2012. Neighborhood branch libraries would be open three days a week and the MLK Main library would reduce hours 12 percent. Delay opening of new Seven Trees and new Bascom libraries saves $2.3 million for library staffing. Does not include community center staffing costs.

Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services:
Eliminate 38 positions to save $4.3 million in 2010-2011 and $5 million in 2011-2012. Close smaller community centers.
Eliminate 12 positions, saving $836,000 in 2010-2011 and $854,000 in 2011-2012. Reduce maintenance staffing at parks; restrooms open only on weekends except in summer. Eliminate 10 park rangers, saving $634,000 in 2010-2011 and $848,000 in 2011-2012. Eliminate 24 positions, saving $630,000 in 2010-2011 and $637,000 in 2011-2012. Reduces aquatic program to only 2 pools in San Jose. Eliminate two positions in Code Enforcement, saving $302,000 in 2010-2011 and $323,000 in in 2011-2012.

Fire:
Eliminate 90 positions (88 are filled), saving $12 million in 2010-2011. 2011-2012 costs determined through binding arbitration. Reduce/suspend fire apparatus and fire fighters at station 30 Auzerais, Station 33 Communications Hill, Station 34 Las Plumas, Station 35 Poughkeepsie, Station 3 Martha Street and one other station yet to be identified.

Police:
Eliminate 160 positions (153 are filled), saving $25.5 in 2010-2011. 2011-2012 costs determined through binding arbitration. Reduce police patrols; eliminate funding for new officers; reduce Metro Unit; reduce Investigations unit; reduce Downtown services unit; delay opening of Police Substation; reduce Financial Crimes unit. Reduce the Crossing Guard program by 8.3 positions to save $354,000 in 2010-2011

Transportation:
Eliminate 12 positions for capital projects, including transit and bike/pedestrian projects. Saves $1.4 million in 2010-2011 and $1.6 million in 2011-2012. Eliminate 9 positions for Neighborhood Traffic Calming. No more traffic studies and no implementation of traffic calming tools. Saves $921,000 in 2010-2011 and $999,000 in 2011-2012. Eliminate five positions for residential street sealing. Saves $375,000 in 2010-2011 and $415,000 in 2011-2012.

Convention Center:
Eliminate 25 positions to save $1.9 million 2010-2011 and $2 million in 2011-2012.

This list is not comprehensive and may/will fluctuate based on final Council adoption of the budget in June.