June 19, 2008

City council passes budget, traffic calming

By Carol Rosen
Editor

While San Jose’s budget for 2008-09 has been an ongoing process since last January, it passed relatively quickly with only a few distractions on June 17.

During a June 16 public hearing, a large number of people, including city and police employees, labor union officials and residents, took their allotted two minutes each to express their desires of how the money should be spent. Even city council members posted memos requesting changes in the Mayor’s budget message. However, in the end there was little changed.

The final budget that passed closed $29 million deficit—with no layoffs—and will add 25 new police officers, $1.5 million for gang prevention programs, and $1.2 million for traffic calming.

Although a June 13 memo from District 5 Councilmember Nora Campos requested that the traffic calming money be used to hire additional police officers, by Tuesday’s meeting she had backed down on that item and voted with the rest of the council to include it in the budget.

Traffic calming
The changes to the city’s traffic calming policies came after last fall’s series of 10 meetings in each council district to gather information from citizens on the existing policy, get feedback on potential changes, and recommend priorities to address neighborhood traffic concerns.

Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio presented a report on the meetings in March. The transportation staff was asked to research the feasibility of red light cameras for a potential red light running program; research the feasibility of increasing traffic fines, update traffic calming policies to include expansion of physical and electronic devices, consideration of cumulative traffic impacts of speed, volume, crashes, pedestrian activity and proximity to schools and/or parks and provisions for neighborhoods to self-fund traffic calming devices.

The staff also was asked to look into partnerships with school districts for aiding the costs of traffic devices near schools and investigate AB 321 allowing cities to lower speeds in school zones.

Department of Transpor-tation director Jim Helmer said his staff will update the city’s traffic calming tool kit, which can be used for approximate costs and to identify problems and resources. He expects to have that kit available within the next two weeks, including the number of devices and costs. By December, he hopes to be working with neighborhood leaders.

The council unanimously voted to make it easier for neighborhoods to implement programs to slow traffic on residential streets. The public safety budget reflected their concerns for safety in neighborhoods and around schools and added $920,000 for traffic calming to the $300,000 budgeted by City Manager Debra Figone. Reed’s budget message reinstated funding $313,096 for school crossing guards that Figone proposed to eliminate.

“Even in tough budget times, we must make every effort to keep our residents safe,” said Reed. “The City Council today made a down-payment towards adding 100 new officers over the next four years. Together, we are making crucial investments in growing our police force, preventing our youth from joining gangs, and keeping our residents safe from speeding and unsafe cars in our neighborhoods.”

The newly passed budget includes the hiring of 25 new police officers in addition to the 15-hired last year with a “hope” to add 100 more by 2012.

No one disagreed with the $1,535,207 million allotted for gang prevention and intervention programs. Of that total, $1 million will go toward the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force; $200,000 will go to a summer program to prevent gang activity during summer months; $100,000 for a pilot Community Responsibility Council for youth offenders in partnership with Santa Clara County; $185,207 toward reinstatement of Crime Prevention staff and the Challenges and Choices youth program; and $50,000 for truancy abatement programs ($50,000).

A total of $84,000 was also set aside for camera-surveillance in hot spots for property crimes and auto theft throughout the city. Another $3 million is budgeted to increase efficiencies in police operations by investing in technology to automate field reporting and record management.

At the June 16 meeting, Reed spoke about the budget and noted that while the city isn’t broke or bankrupt like some California cities, “there’s still not enough to go around,” or to complete what the mayor and council would like to see, such as addressing the street maintenance backlog, bringing on the number of police officers the department needs as well as finding funds to keep the libraries open longer.

While revenues are increasing, the growth in the cost of providing the same services exceeds revenue growth. Over the next three years, the structural budget is projected at $115 million. A three-year Structural Budget Deficit Stakeholder Group is analyzing alternatives for eliminating the structural deficit and will bring recommendations to the council in the fall.

On June 19, council members will consider potential taxes or fees that might be placed on the November ballot.