January 17, 2008

San Jose’s future is bright

Mayor offers good and bad news in State of the City address

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Mayor Chuck Reed pronounced the future of San Jose as bright and said he’s looking forward to more success and turning around the financial problems that have plagued the city in recent years during his State of the City address presented on Wednesday at the Convention Center.

Mayor Chuck Reed receives a standing ovation from city council members after his introduction by San Jose State University President Don Kassing and before his State of the City speech. Reed spoke to about 1,400 people at the San Jose Convention Center on Wednesday, Jan. 16 about 2007 and the city's strengths and weaknesses. Photos by Carol Rosen

He led off the speech telling the audience that he has the “best job in the world,” and joked that despite news reports to the contrary “there is no truth to the rumor that I have asked Body Worlds to find me a double to sit through our long council meetings.”

The year 2007 was full of cooperation and collaboration, he told the audience of more than 1,400 people. Using Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors as an example, Reed complimented a “renewed spirit of collaboration between the city and the county; we’re working together on a long list of issues. Among those attending were County Supervisors Liz Kniss, Pete McHugh and Ken Yeager.

Others receiving thanks for their help with city business were Assemblyman Jim Beall, City Manager Debra Figoone, Redevelopment Director Harry Mavrogenes, council appointees, all 10 city council members and city employees. Others attending included a number of business leaders such as Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Pat Dando and former mayors Susan Hammer and Tom McEnery.

Changes
Reviewing 2007, Reed commented on the city’s ethics changes, budgeting reforms and land use… as well as launching a major update of the General Plan with a community wide task force.

He also commented on the successes over the past year including the city’s economic development, $5 billion worth of new projects in downtown, North San Jose and Edenvale, six million square feet of new office space and nearly 9,000 units of housing in North San Jose as well as new high-rise housing and office developments downtown.

Council member Pierluigi Oliverio compliments Mayor Chuck Reed on his State of the City speech. Reed spoke about the changes in 2007 and the most difficult problem facing the city-the structural budget deficit. San Jose residents and their government officials need to learn to live within our means, the mayor told the attendants.

In addition, Reed mentioned that transportation plans are advancing with the assurance that the California high speed rail goes from San Jose to Los Angeles and bringing BART to San Jose as well as additional state funding for major freeway improvements.

Reed also noted a shorter permitting process including the promise he made to strongly improve the city’s permitting process and seeing early “encouraging results. If you want a permit to open a restaurant it only takes 14 days. If you want a permit to install equipment in your factory, it only takes four days. If you want a permit for new tenant improvements in your office building it only takes one day. And, more than 75 percent of our building inspections were completed within 24 hours. “

He thanked the Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department, the Chamber, the Home Builders Association, NAIOP, the Downtown Association and the AIA for contributing their help in driving down permitting times.

Problems
However, the city still has problems, Reed said. He is troubled by the increase in gang violence and homicides. “That’s why I recommended and the council approved an additional $1 million for the work of the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force.

“Keeping our city safe is a challenge that all big cities are facing. There is no simple solution to crime and violence, but don’t be mistaken, as our city grows so must our police department. Depending on our budget constraints, I hope to be able to recommend that we ‘grow the department’ when we take up the budget in March.”

He suggested that adding police officers isn’t enough to eliminate the problem of too few officers as service calls grow. He suggested the city increase its recruiting efforts, hire additional civilian staff to help beat officers and to make better use of those officers we have. “Our new substation will help by putting officers closer to the neighborhoods and making the department more efficient, but more remains to be done.”

Pluses
Reed cited recent public demonstrations as proof the democracy is alive and well in San Jose. “Public demonstrations are visible proof of difference between life in San Jose and life in Vietnam. Here people are free to speak their minds, in Vietnam they are persecuted for speaking up.”

At the same time, he said the city must encourage and facilitate private sector investment. One method is through green technologies with 25,000 clean tech jobs. To ensure the investment continues and strengthens, Reed plans to recommend the Redevelopment Board create a Clean Tech jobs investment fund to carry on building the new industry here. That already has started with NanoSolar, SunPower and SoloPower creating a number of new jobs in San Jose.

Cole Bayer, 11, a sixth grader at Union Middle School discusses the city's Green Vision with Mayor Chuck Reed. Bayer was one of 10 students that won a contest turning the city's Green Vision goals into artwork. His win netted Bayer tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum as well as the honor of leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.

But he hopes to continue to encourage other green projects. “Our goal is to build or retrofit 50 million square feet of green buildings,” he said, citing Legacy’s River Park Towers II, which is a LEED-certified gold standard green building.

The budget
Noting the city is the 10th largest and one of the safest, in the United States, he also listed a number of facts; “San Jose has the highest median household income of all big cities in the country; the city is the first in the nation for nanotechnology R&D, it leads the nation in patents, it’s one of America’s most playful cities, best fitness walking cities and the best place in the country for women to meet men.”

However, the structural budget deficit will hold back the city from reaching greatness, he said. “Next year will be the eighth year in a row of budget shortfalls…We are facing future operating budget shortfalls of over $137 million…plus a General Fund backlog of over $500 million for repairs and other work to fill potholes and get our buildings, parks, pools and streets back into good condition.”

Spending more than the city takes in will not relieve these problems, he said. But “the good news is we have the ability to change our ways and we will.” The methods to do so already are in place, such as faster revenue growth through a vibrant economy and more jobs; the use of technology to increase productivity and investing to save energy and reduce maintenance costs and by slowing increased expenses by sticking to spending only what the city has.

Since Reed is against solving the budget problems with layoffs and salary cuts, it makes sense for the city to live within its means. For example, Reed asked the staff not to hand out raises that are larger than revenue growth. If the city’s projected revenue growth is 3- to 4 percent annually, don’t give employees 6 percent raises, he said.

He asked council members and San Jose residents “to accept fiscal reality while we work together on our budget problems. We all have to work together. When we do, we will eliminate our structural budget deficit. We can do it. We should do it. We will do it.”

Ending on a high note, the mayor announced a number of coming attractions to San Jose including the Tour of California with cyclists riding through San Jose streets; the Zero One festival combining art and technology; a clean, safe and friendly downtown; solar panels on The Tech Museum; the city’s BioCenter doubling in size; renovation of the historic Civic Auditorium; scientists and engineers in school classrooms; and bringing back the Earthquakes.

One of the most exciting things to happen here will be next summer when all the U.S. Olympic athletes will be housed at San Jose State University to prepare them for their trip to China’s summer Olympics.