May 15, 2008

NEWS BRIEFS

AVCA hears candidates for neighborhood commission

Three of the four candidates vying for the District 10 neighborhood commission spent the evening of Monday, May 12 speaking to the Almaden Valley Community Association.

Bob Boydston, Bruce Paynter and Russ Petruzzelli spoke to the AVCA prior to the June 8 caucus to be held at the Vineland Library on Blossom Hill Road at 10 a.m.

“The neighborhood commission is a boon for the city. There are times when neighborhoods are up in arms and don’t know where to go to be heard. These commissioners will alleviate that problem by identifying all the locations where problems might occur,” said Art Boudreault, president of AVCA.

“I think the three candidates that appeared all had remarkable qualifications that would service them well on the neighborhood commission,” Boudreault added.

A fourth candidate, Ronald Layman, did not attend the session.

Larger group attends District 10 budget session

A group of somewhere between 40 and 60 people attended last week’s District 10 community budget session at the Almaden Community Center, larger than in previous years, but not as large as the District 10 office had hoped.

“I thought it was a good session, but I was disappointed it was not attended by thousands,” said Dave Fadness, VEP president, who also noted that “if we’re not there and things don’t go the way we want them to, we complain.”
Pyle agreed with Fadness and she and her staff had hoped to have 100 people in attendance, but she noted that it was larger than previous sessions, which had been held on Saturday mornings.

While Fadness thought Pyle’s survey was a good idea and instructive in what zip codes responded, he said he thought a more scientifically conducted survey would benefit the area more. “Pyle’s survey is the way to go, but I wish it had sampled a larger number of people more scientifically,” he said.

Pyle’s office e-mailed 5,000 copies of the 13-question survey and advertised it through news items in local papers. There were 307 responses with a majority calling for the city to close the gap between revenue and expenses through increased hotel room taxes, business license taxes and increases in the existing real estate transfer tax.

Most of those responding agreed that police and fire safety are the highest priority to consider and that the city would be wise to increase civilian police and fire positions, contract out services, sell under-used city property and lower entry level salaries.

Mayor Chuck Reed and City Manager Debra Figone were there to explain the budget process and ask those attending for more community input for the upcoming budget.