June 5, 2008

City Notebook

Birds, bonds and bags

There was a lot of news emanating from City Hall this week, mostly in the form of bonds and bags, and of course, the birds—San Jose City Hall’s nesting falcons and their babies, who are now taking flight.

In the area of bonds, on Tuesday, the council unanimously agreed, after some discussion, to authorize issuing general obligation bonds, series 2008 for libraries and parks projects not to exceed the aggregate principal amount of $33,100,000 to be sold at competitive sale.

The council voted 10-1, with Pete Constant the only dissenter to support Assembly Bill 2058 to recycle plastic and paper carryout bags.

Disagreements
The council also received the 2007 year-end report from the independent police auditor and the police chief’s rebuttal. It seemed somewhat reminiscent of last year’s report as the auditor and police chief again disagreed over complaints vs. inquiries. Last year the council denied her request for more power.

Scientists from UC Santa Cruz’s Predatory Bird Research Group rappelled down from the top of city hall to examine the three peregrine flacon fledglings, determine their sex and band them before the names for the three were announced. Photo: City of San Jose

IPA Barbara Attard recommended the police notify her office as soon as they receive misconduct complaints. She also suggested that police booking suspects notify them how to get back their personal property and asked that people be given advance warning if their cars are to be towed.

Attard said she was asking for the notification because police-reported-complaints initiated last year that were reported this year, confusing and muddling her statistics. She added that 2007 complaints totaled 547, marking the fifth year they have risen.

Chief Rob Davis, however, said the figure should be 290 because her figures include inquiries. The department, he said, notifies the IPA without delay when it receives complaints, but reiterated his point from last year, that her request would include personnel investigations triggered internally that are beyond her authority.

"We don't want anybody thinking we're trying to put something in there late to frustrate the IPA," Davis said. "The IPA has no jurisdiction over those investigations."

Davis also tied her recommendation about personal property to a single suspect booked three years ago, adding that no others have occurred with more than 34,000 arrests in 2007.

As for the towing problem, Davis said the police place impound notices on cars 72 hours before towing. He added there were less than 10 complaints last year in spite of more than 38,000 vehicles that were towed.
Council members unanimously agreed to accept both the IPA report and the chief’s rebuttal.

Birds named
A week after the three baby peregrine falcons were banded and their sexes determined, Mayor Chuck Reed announced the winning names for the three birds.

The fledglings are two females, Cielo and Meyye, and their brother is Mercury. Cielo is Spanish for sky; Meyye is Miwok for bird and Mercury is both the winged messenger god and the substance found in the mines in New Almaden.

“We received more than 130 wonderful entries. Our staff, our volunteer judges and the voters from the falcon fan list-serve were delighted to see how many children had spent time learning about peregrine falcons and expressing themselves creatively. In addition to selecting names for the falcons, this contest was designed to encourage young people to take interest in nature and science and to express their interest artistically,” said Reed.

Children age 5 to 17 living in San Jose sent in entries. Each submitted a short essay or piece of art to go along with the entry. Aiden, a kindergartner at Hacienda Environmental Science Magnet School, nominated Cielo. A Village School fifth grader named Justin nominated Meyye, and Cameron, a third grader at Parkview School, nominated Mercury.

Judges from the Arts Council Silicon Valley and from Adobe screened all the nominations and selected 15 that were presented to 1,800 members of San Jose Peregrine Falcon Discussion Group, an online forum dedicated to the City Hall falcons, who determined the winners.

Mercury was the first fledgling to fly. He took off last Wednesday (May 28) and flew to a ledge on City Hall and then to a tree on the north side of San Jose State before missing his attempt to return to the nest. Volunteers rescued him from Sixth Street and biologist Glenn Steward from UC Santa Cruz’s Predatory Bird Research Group examined him, the “winged god” spent the night in a secure location and was returned to a safe spot on top of City Hall the next morning. He’s been flying around city hall and downtown ever since.