March 19, 2009

Mayor releases budget message

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Although the city actually began the 2009-10 budget planning in January, Mayor Chuck Reed released his Budget Message for the upcoming fiscal year this week.

The message contained little that residents weren’t already aware of in planning the budget to face the expected $61 million shortfall and make tough decisions to balance it for the upcoming fiscal year but also looking at maintaining a balanced budget for several years down the road. The message will be voted on during next week’s city council meeting.

“While San Jose will receive funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to repave streets, help the homeless, put police officers on the beat and invest in energy efficiency, we cannot count on stimulus funds to solve our budget shortfall,” Reed said. “We must make tough decisions so that we don’t make our fiscal problems worse in the years ahead.”

The budget message calls for the city to continue its goal of adding 100 police officers by 2012; preserve funding for school crossing guards; invest in economic development opportunities, especially in emerging industries such as clean technology, which will create jobs and build the city’s tax base; invest in projects that will save the city operating expenses over the long-term, such as switching to energy efficient LED streetlights or installing clean energy on city facilities,m any of which have the po-tential to receive ARRA stim-ulus funding from the federal government. It also suggests reaching out to the com-munity to build support should the opportunity to bring baseball to San Jose arise.

With the city facing the likelihood of eliminating services and jobs, Reed called on residents and city employees to share ideas for closing the $61 million budget gap. “In these tough times, we all need to work together,” he said. “The City Council and I are looking for innovative ideas that will allow us to solve this shortfall with the least impact on our residents, businesses, and employees.”

In the message, he reiterated concerns he has expressed in previous speeches about the city’s budget. “While our problems have been compounded by national trends, we cannot ignore the fact that our budget woes have existed for nearly a decade and will persist if we do not continue to implement fundamental changes toward how we operate. We need to avoid quick fix, short-term solutions that will exacerbate the situation in the future. It is only by making sound decisions toward economic growth and becoming more efficient that we will avoid being confronted with the same dilemma each year.”

He also outlined recommendations that will help push the city’s economic goals forward. These included support of new baseball and soccer stadiums, utilizing Work2Future as well as directing the city manager to identify opportunities linking the workforce development program, gang prevention programs and the city’s Green Vision goals. He also suggested city officials use a coordinated marketing effort to identify opportunities to improve collaboration and use resources more effectively.

Mayor Reed suggested reducing subsidies for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and using part of those funds to support arts organizations and the general fund. Other recommendations include more generation of innovative ideas for encouraging residents to visit or live downtown; strengthening the incubator program; more responsive plans for affordable housing, home foreclosures and homelessness programs and continuing to facilitate the permitting process level of service.

Discussion and description of the mayor’s plans were followed by five speakers from the public who suggested a variety of ideas including a quarter-cent sales tax to be specified for particular items with a sunset provision; increased marketing funds, increase revenue to the general fund through leverage funding and continue to operate public safety services as efficiently as possible by reassigning officers from investigating non-injury accidents to areas where they are needed.

Reed’s budget message was developed following a Community Budget Process that has been implemented since he took office, which fulfills commitments to transparency and fiscal responsibility in budgeting and recommendations outlined in his Reed Reforms.

The process includes a scientific community survey on budget priorities and priority-setting sessions with neighborhood leaders and members of the City Council. He recommends that meetings on the proposed budget be held in every City Council district again this year, allowing residents opportunity to get involved in the process.

With the city facing the likelihood of eliminating services and jobs, Reed called on residents and city employees to share ideas for closing the $61 million budget gap. “In these tough times, we all need to work together,” he said. “The City Council and I are looking for innovative ideas that will allow us to solve this shortfall with the least impact on our residents, businesses, and employees.”

Falcon family growing
In other city news, Clara and Estaban Colbert have sort of become parents. Thursday afternoon, Clara delivered the first egg of the season. She is now sitting on three.

Opening up their rooftop nesting box to worldwide viewers of the FalconCam, the San Jose City Hall peregrine falcons have become reality show superstars over the past two years. Falcon fans can watch the San Jose City Hall nestbox live via the FalconCam, a Webcam maintained by San Jose in partnership with the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California – Santa Cruz. The FalconCam is online at both:

* City of San Jose Web site at www.sanjoseca.gov.

* Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group Web site at www.scpbrg.org.

Clara and Estaban also have a Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Clara-and-Esteban-Colbert-the-San-Jose-City-Hall-Falcons/52223589290.