Oliverio for Supervisor 2018

Independent - Transparent - Fiscally Responsible

Do Things Differently

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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.

The first part of the meeting covered the shortfall—which may still grow by either continued lagging revenues from sales taxes and property taxes, or the state legislature grabbing more city funds. It is clear that there are no easy answers. I hear people say “since the stock market is up then the city budget will be ok.” The stock market going up does not provide jobs to unemployed San Jose residents nor does it bring revenues to pay for city services. The only benefit is it might reduce our pension matches slightly next year; however our pension portfolios are invested in more than equities.

We spent time talking about raising taxes on residents, such as a sales tax increase to pay for city services. I said that I would prefer that we increase taxes on card clubs and allow them more tables as allowed by state law, which would bring in as much as $12 million. The card clubs already bring the city approximately $13 million each year.

I also mentioned that taxing medicinal marijuana would help our budget deficit as well.

We then went on to options that would reduce per-employee cost, whether it be pay cuts, increasing medical co-payments or 2nd tier retirement plans for city employees not yet hired. As you would expect none of these options were popular with the council.

Then city management unveiled, its “Approach to Prioritizing City Services” AKA “Core Services.” This concept would be a long stakeholder engagement process that would include scoring and weighing the value of 450 city programs identified so far. However it would not necessarily eliminate programs that scored low. The presentation contained buzz words like «engaging stakeholders,» «peer review,» «finalize a work plan.»

Others said it is not right to prioritize and rank since it puts certain city services against each other. I shared that I am willing to participate, but that the approach presented is meant to give “political cover” in making decisions.

I believe that we can’t make paid interest groups happy all the time and at some point we have to vote to make changes that may be unpopular. The Council was elected to make decisions on behalf of everyone in their district and City, not just a few. This process could take a year, therefore, I immediately offered what my core city services are: Police, Sewers, Fire, Streets, Planning, Emergency Preparedness, Economic Development, Libraries, Parks and Code Enforcement. The presentation left out an obvious city priority: infrastructure. Without sewers and streets life in a city comes to a stop.

At the end of the meeting, the Council voted on my memo titled, “Make Union Negotiations Public.” The memo asked that closed door union negotiation meetings, which take up 75 percent of the city’s budget be public meetings. It did not pass on a 3-8 vote. The majority of the council voted to keep these meetings behind closed doors even though these past meetings are why we have a structural budget deficit.

I have posted the presentation from the meeting on my Council website labeled, 2010-11 Budget Planning – Nov. 5, 2009.

Implementing Proposition 215 in San Jose

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I support an ordinance in San Jose that allows for the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana dispensaries/collectives.

Proposition 215, which was passed with voter approval in 1996,  called for the legalization of Medicinal Marijuana with 56 percent of the voters in favor. Santa Clara County supported this proposition by 64 percent. Since then, the legislature has passed SB420 which dealt with the actual implementation of Medical Marijuana.

In 2008, the State Attorney General presented Guidelines for the Security and Non-diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use. Most recently, on Oct 19, 2009, the Obama administration stated that they are not prosecuting medicinal marijuana in states where it is legal: California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Maine, Rhode Island, Alaska and Hawaii.

I understand that proposing to allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis will raise questions and concerns. This issue did not happen overnight, but rather has taken a pragmatic and thoughtful approach which has included voter approval, state and federal guidelines.

Marijuana for medical use is legal. Thousands of people who are living with painful ailments currently use cannabis for potential deadly diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis and others. It was not unheard of for doctors in the past to have told their patients to have their family members go and purchase marijuana for them, illegally, since the medical benefits of cannabis help the patient.

Currently, San Jose residents travel to San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Cruz to obtain medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription. However, since this is a legal use and and in my opinion, especially since the voters approved the use, San Jose should adopt some type of ordinance that allows and monitors the use of cannabis collectives in San Jose. In addition, the way that the dispensaries are set up, money is used as an incentive for the City and uses as a deterrent for anyone who would choose to disobey the law.

Medicinal Marijuana Dispensaries will open, whether San Jose has an ordinance or not, and will use the court system to stay open. Most recently the city of Los Angeles which has over 500 dispensaries of which only 186 our licensed, lost their court case in limiting how many could exist in their city. If San Jose sits docile, then dispensaries may open in places where we do not want them to be located. In addition, if medical marijuana dispensaries get the right to deliver their product through the mail, then San Jose would lose any opportunity to gain revenue from taxes and fees.

Last week I submitted a memo that includes the following: directing the planning staff to bring back an ordinance to the city council in four months; use industrial land since typically industrial land is not next to schools or churches. The goal is that this use would add value to industrial property owners who would might be less likely to try and convert their land to housing.

An example of an existing ordinance is the City of Oakland. Oakland voters passed a ballot measure by 80 percent to raise the tax on marijuana to $18 for every $1,000 of sales. My suggestion is to set it at nearly twice as much: $30 for every $1,000 of marijuana sales. I believe that depending on how many dispensaries San Jose would allow could bring in $500K to $1 million to the city. I have suggested that this money be put aside and spent on core services which would be police officers and street maintenance.

Here is a link to the entire memo: 10-27-09 Adopt Ordinance for Legal Medical Cannabis Use San Jose

All About Money on Tuesdays

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A variety of issues were discussed at last week’s council meeting that dealt with city finances. Jennifer Maguire, the Director of our Budget Office, shared that the ending fund balance this year is 1.3 percent. The city has always had an ending fund balance for as long as anyone can remember.

It is both a science and an art trying to guess how variable revenue sources such as sales taxes will end up. The goal is to be conservative so we have a little left over to put in our Economic Uncertainty Reserve. This reserve acts as our savings account.

The money in the reserve is not earmarked for any specific purpose. One never knows when the state of California might take more revenue from the city; therefore, it is important to have money saved “just in case.”

To give you a little flavor of how bad the some our revenue numbers are:
Sales Tax was down 14.5 percent in 2008-2009.
The last two quarters of 2008-2009, Sales Tax dropped by 29.3 percent and 28.2 percent.
TOT (hotel tax) was down 19 percent in 2008-2009.
Construction & Conveyance was down 24 percent in 2008-2009 (down 36 percent in 2007-2008).

After these facts were stated at the council meeting, a paid lobbyist from the union spoke during public comment and lambasted the council for carrying a 1.3 percent ending fund balance. It appears that this person wanted the city to spend all of it’s money and not save any.

As way of background regarding our past surpluses, from 1989-2009, on average we have ended in the black each year with a surplus of 1.8 percent. The highest year was in 2000-01 where we ended with a surplus of 5.6 percent. (There was a huge growth in sales tax that year which contributed to the high number..incidentally, that was when the city used some of the extra money to first establish the Economic Uncertainty Reserve).

The paid union lobbyist that spoke actually worked for the city during the Mayor Hammer years (1989-1996). The average surplus during the Hammer years was 1.3 percent, with a surplus as high as 2.4 percent.

Personally, I don’t think it is prudent to spend every last dollar of the city’s finances; just as I have my own personal savings account, so should the city.

The issue of outsourcing some city services was also discussed. As usual, the council voted down any chance of outsourcing, which is a subject that comes up again and again. I support some outsourcing of non-core city services. I would take the savings that the city would have from outsourcing and either shore up the budget or preferably provide more core services—such as police and libraries—to the residents.

Outsourcing may not equate to laying people off, rather, the current employees might remain. We have attrition at the city, and some city employees could supervise the contractors work. A simple fact is that the city saves $1.2 million a year from having outsourced janitorial for the city hall night shift. With savings like $1.2 million we could either open all branch libraries citywide on Sundays or Mondays or hire 10 police officers. We are simply reallocating money to what we feel is most important, as you do every day.

The debate will continue as the city will be looking at hundreds of layoffs in June of filled positions to balance the $91 million budget deficit.

Another agenda item was the city’s love-hate relationship with our two legal card clubs. These two businesses combined bring the city $13.5 million a year which is half of the citywide library budget. The clubs were looking to move out of San Jose since San Jose’s regulations are tougher then state law. As a result, the council voted to allow fewer restrictions—but still more restrictions than the state requires.

No matter what your view on gambling is, it brings our city a substantial amount of money. People who choose to partake in these activities can do so in San Jose or they may choose to gamble by logging onto the internet. However if everyone chose to gamble on the internet the city would have to cut $13.5 million out of the budget or raise taxes.

Finally, last week’s vote on not exposing police records saved us from cutting city services to the residents. Had that passed it would have created a massive burden on police and the city attorney’s office. We would have had to devote resources to manage the deluge of requests which would mean taking police off the street and attorneys off of litigation which are both core services.

If we really want sunshine then lets make all labor negotiations public meetings. Public meetings would shed light on our city finances and save an incredible amount of time/frustration going back and forth.

On any given Tuesday we could save money, spend money or break even which is essentially do no harm.

Nighttime Public Meeting on Police Issues

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The Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee, which I sit on, had a special meeting last Wednesday night. Usually, this committee meets during the day. This special meeting was being sponsored by the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) and the City Council stemming from the alleged racial profiling arrests Downtown for pubic intoxication. This is one of two meetings to be held at night to elicit public opinion about our police force. The next one will be spring 2010.

The city manager briefed the audience on the background of what San Jose has been doing to address this issue like police training, working with La Raza Round table and the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity (CPLE) initiative to study our police force by an academic nature. Also, a new revised citizen complaint process is being worked on by Police Internal Affairs and the IPA. Finally, he described a pilot project with the Taser company for their new product called Axon which is a small camera that police would wear and turn on while arresting individuals.

A card was given out to each speaker that had three questions:

1. What reactions do you have to City efforts to date?
2. What ideas do you have to address policing issues?
3. What do you want to know about police services?

Here are some quotes from speakers at the meeting:

Question 1:
Kathleen:
Proud that we have looked at all sides of the issue, however city leaving out people that support the police and victims rights groups.

Scott:
It is night and day compared to where we were in 2008. It is positive and the vibe Downtown is good.

Thought 2008 was a PR black eye for Downtown. Sean Webby did good reporting. Chief Davis moved on recommendations from the Intoxication Task-force.

Gentleman from Church Ministry:
Positive viewpoint of police.

Kathy:
Mentally ill woman spoke and made no sense. (She is a regular speaker at Council meeting who introduces herself as the US President.)

David:
Appreciates the efforts. Felt that meetings should be held throughout city instead of city hall.

Raj:
Wanted to applaud city mgr and police with improvements on reducing the arrest rate. We still have a way to go like what is the underlying causes between community and police. Get to true community policing. Would like to see city drop Tasers. Look at other arrests other than drunk in public.

Bob:
Not a finger pointer. Feels that some are still pointing fingers at police and that they should communicate and be constructive. Proud of police dept.

Question 2:

Kathleen:
Hire more police officers as they are tired and overworked. Downtown bars need to be more accountable for who they bring to town. Victims rights advocates should be part of every committee. IPA should disclose who they collaborate with since some groups are not viewed as neutral.

Scott:
Constructive conversation is bringing community policing more into alignment.
Downtown Assoc stayed in the conversation with the Intoxication task force and did not walk out like other groups.
Need to keep training up as new people and business come to downtown.

Issa:
Too bad city waited ‘till it was a problem. Son’s car was searched without a need. Disappointed with Chief on his meeting with him. Would like police to use consent forms when doing cars searches. He himself was searched at Starbucks by police. Consent forms for searches his priority.
David:
Friends in minority groups fear that police is not representative of the population.  In SF the police are recruiting at street fair parties. San Jose should do the same and recruit police that are more like the population of the city.

Teresa:
Husband hit by car on The Alameda and helped by police officer home. Good example of community policing.  Community policing helps rid negative connotation of police. Highlight positive experiences. Police should have longer terms in the neighborhood. More training on dealing with individuals with mental illness. More access to public records.

Question 3:

Kathy2:
Commend the city of San Jose for addressing this issue head on. Concern with early intervention workplan. How would the city identify the officers and how often. Represents the NAACP.

Kathleen:
What is being done to involve citizens in community policing? Neighborhood watch and crime prevention are great programs. What is happening to bring youth and police together? More peer counseling where youth would shame others youth from doing bad things.

Open Forum:

Christian:
Disappointed with IPA choices on collaboration with groups that are not neutral. Include victims rights advocates.

David:
Human rights commission is made up of 13 community members. Rep from IPA and Police attend the meetings. If you want to make a complaint then coming to the human rights commission is a good place to do it. Likes Citizens Police Academy and feels city should do more. Also thinks the city should fund human rights commission to do outreach.

Kathy:
Said we were stealing her body parts. Illegal immigrants are stealing our jobs. Council should be charged with embezzlement. The Fairmont Hotel is my hotel and you have not paid me for it yet.

Kathleen:
Thinks there should be more outreach to neighborhoods (all neighborhoods) police do a great job and have caught many of the murderer’s who killed in San Jose. Vigil for police will be an annual event honoring our police.

Issa:
Supports the police. To support it is to help improve it. Take the time to ask police in other cities about consent forms for searches.

Francisco:
(With New Harvest Christian Fellowship) Did not hear about solutions that attack the problem at hand to become more productive citizens. Churches offer programs like a 12 step program with drug and alcohol abuse. We have a family outreach and intervention program that collaborates with 45 business to have a community event. Invited the police however did not attend/support (unclear).

Bobby:
Include the police officers, the Police Officers Association. spoke to 200 youth about opportunities. Sat down with Raj and ACLU to talk and listen. The POA is available to help. Willing to attend the Human Rights commission. Straight Talk.

Paul:
Support the committee’s work. Best city council that we have had in a long time. Sometimes the police are asked to change but are not part of the change; agree with Bobby. Otherwise police get squeezed in the middle. Overall doing a good job since your trying.

On a separate issue and with much sadness but happiness for him and his family, Jim Helmer, the Director of Transportation, retired from the City of San Jose. I personally enjoyed serving with Jim and his supporting team whose main concern is safety for pedestrians and drivers. He will be missed. But have no fear as our new director is Hans Larsen who has a great background and is very capable.

Last Week Stunk

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Last week, I toured the City of San Jose’s sanitary sewer system along with Public Works staff. For those of you who may not be aware, sewers in San Jose stretch out for 2,200 miles and range anywhere from 100 years old to brand new. The “sewer freeway” is at Zanker Road, where four large- diameter lines converge towards Alviso. They run side by side in different sizes and during the dry season we turn two of them off since the flow is slower without rainfall. This gives a rest to the other lines so they can be inspected and also helps move solid materials (grit) through the pipes.

Solid debris is made of mostly sand and organic matter (coffee grounds, egg shells, bones), toiletries, to massive clogs of hair the size of a 4th grader. One method to clear the line is to use the “Pig Launcher.” This is where a neoprene bullet-shaped cleaning plug is shot down the pipe with a blast of water from a pumping station and then retrieved at the next pumping station.

Replacing sewers pipes is important and is ongoing year-round. Since many of the pipes are small, we use technology to travel down the pipe. For example, we have a robot that cruises down the sewer pipe with a bright light and camera that rotates to view the entire circumference of the pipe. The rotating of the robot allows staff to see a break, root intrusion or large objects.

Digging up and replacing the pipe is a big project that impacts anyone connected to that line. One method that used is a process that blows a tube, (like a long tube sock) into a section of pipe that requires fixing. Hot liquid is then pumped through the liner causing the material, a form of epoxy, to expand. With the liquid removed, the material hardens. Next a robot is maneuvered through the new pipe cutting a tap out at each residence allowing the flow from each household to resume. The pipe diameter becomes a bit smaller—however the pipe is completely smooth with all breaks and cracks repaired.

All cities face the challenge of maintaining sewer infrastructure over time.  The items we flush begin to decompose within the sewer mains and can create gases that over time can corrode concrete pipes. Also, trees through root intrusion break the pipes, which is problematic since San Jose loves its tree canopy. So when you see a beautiful tree-lined street it inevitably will create more problems with the sewer lines. It’s a dilemma for tree owners as those roots are thirsty and will break pipes looking for water—not to mention the havoc on sidewalks. Personally I am not prepared to take out my trees, however I will have to budget for future expenses like plumbing and sidewalks because of them.

The largest culprit in blocking of the sewer pipes is “FOG”—fats-oils-grease. Pouring these into your kitchen sink is problematic as it travels from your home to the six inch pipe (typical residential sewer main) on your street where it eventually merges with a larger pipe as it moves north towards Alviso. Homeowners are responsible for the “lateral” pipe from their home to sewer connection. If your pipe clogs up because of “FOG” then the homeowner would have to pay out of pocket to get it fixed.

Personally, I was hoping to get dirty and get down in the sewer and walk around like the people you see on the show “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel. However, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules required that a breathing apparatus be used while the person going down is hooked to a harness. Without the gas mask a person would pass out due to the methane and other gases. Needless to say, the sewer can be stinky, so iron salt is added into a large sewer main near Blossom Hill Road so there is less odor. In addition, a pilot program has been launched allowing hydrogen peroxide to be injected into the sewer mains over by Bay 101 to minimize the smell.

The smell is why we have the buffer lands between the sewage treatment plant and people who live nearby. Over time, we may see development of these buffer lands. For example, this area was where Tesla Motors was proposed to locate in San Jose, however, my mantra is always buyer beware. We also have sheep on the buffer lands so that we don’t have to mow it. As I looked at the buffer lands, it reminded me of something out of an African savanna as many sheep were huddled for shade. I did not observe rats or mice in the sewer as I pictured from movies, but there were lots of cockroaches visible when lifting up a manhole cover.

We observed the sewer flowing through the larger pipes called “interceptors,” moving at about 8-10 feet per minute which seemed pretty fast. I expected the water to be thicker, however it was actually viscous.  San Jose is lucky in the we are fairly flat but we do have a slight decline from South San Jose towards Alviso so fewer pumping stations are needed than in other cities.

Managing sewers for a city our size is a very technical job and one that requires skilled professionals that I would include in the realm of public safety. Finally, visiting the sewers reminds me about the importance of infill development and building within versus building outside of the urban service area.

Just Short of Singapore

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At the Rules Committee last week, there was a proposal to amend the Graffiti Abatement Ordinance for juvenile offenders.

When someone gets arrested for doing graffiti in San Jose or other cities in Santa Clara county they are punished via the County court system. However cities do have a municipal code where offenders may pay a fine. State law does an adequate job of prosecuting adult graffiti offenders, however, some would say not such a good job of dealing with juveniles, since county probation does not want to spend the resources to supervise their community service work.

The proposal at Rules is asking that minors who are convicted of doing graffiti perform 24 hours of community service work which might include removing their own graffiti and other activities. The memo also states that the minor could pay a $500 fine in lieu of the community service, and if the juvenile could not pay the parents would be liable. The city of San Jose currently spends $2 million a year removing graffiti.

This might sound like a step in the right direction, but I’m not sure it’s enough.  A couple of downtown residents spoke at the Rules committee and said they want more punitive measures against these vandals of private and public property. I agree with the speakers. We should raise the community service hours and the fine to the highest amount allowed by state law. We may choose collectively to not be as punitive toward graffiti vandals as Singapore—but a higher penalty would help discourage the vandalism that is rampant throughout our city.

As far an inexpensive way of doing community service, we might assign neighborhoods where the juvenile would pick up trash continuously. Or assign them to areas where they have to paint out graffiti. However, this could be problematic if they are removing a gang tag and the gang members might retaliate against them. It is unlikely gang members would retaliate against city employees doing their job painting out graffiti. Therefore maybe the offenders should accompany our city employees and be put to work if possible under Workers Compensation rules.

Another option would be to to have the juvenile report to a park and be instructed by a city gardener to pull out all the weeds out of a large park. Then the gardener would check at the end of the day and if the work was not done the offender would not get signed off. We need to find an inexpensive way of managing juvenile offender community service while managing our risk of lawsuits if they got hurt. So lets minimize our risk and not assign them to freeways and expressways but keep them in the neighborhood. I would imagine the hours of punishment would need to be more like 250 hours, or again whatever is the maximum allowed by state law.

This topic will be addressed in the Mayors Gang Task Force and will come back to Rules and eventually to Council in a few months. There are many legal and jurisdictional questions that must be answered by the city attorney, county court system and state law so thus the delay.

What do you think is the appropriate level of punishment? Or do you think they are artists and should be allowed to express themselves? What type of a punitive community service system would you suggest/design that would be inexpensive to administer and would be an easy option for a judge to assign the offender to this system?