May 8, 2008

District 10 Report

Almaden awash with activities

By Councilmember Nancy Pyle
Special to the Times

These first few days of May have been packed with activity in District 10! With so many fantastic events and local gatherings, it’s not hard find a great activity to go with the spectacular weather we’ve been enjoying lately.

Just this past weekend I joined 7,000 local residents and visitors to our area at the third Annual Pat’s Run. It was a stunning way to celebrate Pat Tillman’s legacy, enjoy a beautiful morning in Almaden Valley and raise money for a great cause. I think the aspect of Pat’s Run that impresses me the most is that all the proceeds from the run go to our local high schools in the Leadership through Action program and provide for the development of tomorrow’s leaders.

On Sunday, I was able to meet some active young ladies, who no doubt will be future leaders. The Girl Scout Unit 462 hosted their Recognition Ceremony in Almaden and honored the hard work and dedication of these inspiring young women. This year they honored 60 bronze award winners, three silver award winners and four gold award winners for various projects and progress through the Girl Scouts program. It was fantastic to see 12 recipients receive their 10-year pins as well, now that’s true dedication!

May hasn’t been all fun events and ceremonies though. I am pleased to say that on Wednesday, May 7 I was joined by residents across the Almaden and Blossom Valley areas to tackle difficult budget issues at my third annual District 10 Budget and Neighborhood Forum. It was a great evening that provided an opportunity to learn more about the budget process and give direct, personal feedback to my office regarding the 2008-2009 proposed budget.

San Jose City Manager Debra Figone joined us to present an outline of the proposed 2008-2009 budget. Mayor Chuck Reed was also on hand to present an overview of the budget process. Earlier this month my office hosted an online budget survey for District 10. (See related story, page 1.) Running from March 13 through April 30, 12 survey questions were sent out to over 5,000 District 10 residents.

Highlighted in our local papers as well, this survey was designed to provide my office with a better understanding of District 10 needs through resident feedback. I was pleased to conclude the forum with a power-point presentation that highlighted the results of the survey. The full results of the budget survey will be available online at the District 10 Web site starting May 8, but I would like to take a moment to share some of the highlights with you right now.

Of the 307 individuals who fully completed the survey, 69 percent were from the 95120 area code and 53 percent were male. A whopping 66.9 percent of the respondents indicated that they felt the same quality of life had been maintained within the city over the past two years.

Residents are most concerned with the level of funding for public safety services and street maintenance. The top three priorities for next year’s budget from District 10 residents by percentage were

1. Police and fire services (39 percent),

2. Street maintenance and road repairs (36 percent) and

3. Programs to attract and retain businesses in San Jose (15 percent).

If funding were to be increased, residents support an increase in funding for the police department, street maintenance and the synchronization of traffic signals. Residents also place a high level of importance on changing the way San Jose provides services to reduce costs.

When looking at existing services, residents felt that in general too much funding was going to garbage services, fire services and supporting the arts. On the flip side, they felt too little was going to code enforcement, park maintenance, street cleaning and recruiting businesses to San Jose.

While the city currently provides many services to residents, it currently does not generate enough revenue to continue to provide these services at current levels in the future. When faced with this budget deficit, a little less than 40 percent of residents opted to reduce city services in order to avoid raising fees and taxes.

Ideas to raise revenue and close the gap included increasing the city’s hotel room tax, adjusting the business license tax or increasing the existing real estate transfer tax. When faced with cut backs, oddly enough the first choice was police and fire services. While this does tend to conflict with residents’ highest priorities, it can be somewhat explained by the fact that residents supported reducing support staff but not sworn police officers.

Additional cutback suggestions included reducing the size of pay increases for city employees, reducing library hours by one day per week and reducing staff in the office of the City Attorney, City Clerk, City Manager, and Independent Police Auditor. In closing, residents opposed: reducing police staff dedicated to solving property crimes, reducing street maintenance, reducing the number of school crossing guards and eliminating Crime Prevention programs. This feedback will serve as a valuable resource while I take part in this year’s budget sessions at City Hall.

The rest of May is going to be very eventful! I would like to remind everyone to join me at several upcoming District 10 events over the next few weekends. This coming weekend, on May 10 at 10 a.m., I’ll be helping kick off the grand opening of Leland High School’s new sports complex. Join me for a morning filled with exciting sports clinics from San Jose teams like the SaberCats and the Stealth.

On May 17, I’ll be out at Lake Almaden at 10 a.m. for the grand opening of Phase II, complete with a brand new outdoor amphitheater and incredible playground. Whether it’s attending exciting community events or battling through this year’s budget process, simply put, I love this job. I hope you’ll join me this month and see why!