June 22, 2006

City Hall News Briefs

Council approves $13 million for park projects

The San Jose City Council approved 118 park projects including 11 in District 10, nine in District 9, thirteen in District 8, fourteen in District 6 and four in District 2. The money for these projects was part of funds that were committed to projects, but not allocated. The balance of funds is interest from money unspent on completed projects. The total money available is $13 million.

"The money has accumulated over 17 years and has changed departments and the accounting practices were not done well," Albert Balasgo, acting director of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services told the Times. "We've identified the problems and reconciled the books."

District 10 parks included in the projects are Cahalan Park, Carbelle Park, Fontana Dog Park, Vista Park, Almaden Lake Park, Glenview Park, Almaden Winery, Pfeiffer Park and Parkview Park.

The department plans to hold a series of community meetings to develop changes for the ordinance charging developers fees for parklands. Balasgo said that fees are only 70 percent of current land values. "We're collecting fees at less than cost to purchase land at today's prices," he said. Fees currently cannot be used on trails and school sites, he added, and the department would like to create greater latitude.

The meeting dates will be announced later, but Balasgo was adamant that he wants the public included in discussions. The meetings may start as early as late July.

Community Center reuse plans delayed a year

The issue of Community Center reuse has been delayed for a year, while the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services holds additional public meetings to discuss possible operators and options.

Community meetings will probably begin in late summer, said Albert Balad368 acting director of the Parks Department. Department officials will take the information from the first set of community meetings and combine it with information from the new meetings and come up with a more complete set of recommendations to the City Council, he added. He expects to go back to the council with the information in the November/December time frame.

"Several community members couldn't hear all the options. We heard other options from neighborhood associations that might be able to run the community centers. We want to listen to all those options and see which ones will work," Balasgo said.

City Council accepts independent police report

The San Jose City Council accepted Independent Police Auditor (IPA) Barbara Attard's 2005 report unanimously after some discussion and an appearance by Police Chief Rob Davis.

There were a total of 429 complaints filed in 2005, up by 63 from 2004. However, of those complaints 106 were formal citizen initiated complaints compared with 111 the year before and 203 were called inquiries compared with 118 a year earlier.

Of the 2005 complaints, the IPA audited 187 in which she said that 84 cases should have been investigated, 71 were actually inquiries and 32 were incomplete.

Attard told the Council she thinks the increased numbers show that San Jose residents are feeling more comfortable bringing up their concerns.

The discussion centered on whether or not the increased inquiries were actually citizen complaints. Police Chief Rob Davis noted that the number of contacts made between police and citizens numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

"We don't sweep internal investigations under the carpet," Davis told the Council. "The overwhelming majority of inquiries are not terrible. Supervisors are aware of complaints and inquiries and if a number are made against an officer then we check it out."

He agreed with City Manager Les White that the report should show the total number of calls the police department makes compared with arrests and so forth versus complaints and inquiries. That, he said, would put the number of complaints and inquiries into perspective.

The report also included two new recommendations. One is that the police department develop an expanded shooting at vehicles policy and put it in writing. The second is to train officers to wait for backup when needed.

District 10 Council woman Nancy Pyle took exception to no shooting at moving vehicles. She questioned both Attard and Davis about it. "I don't agree with the major premise. Can't they shoot out the wheels to stop the vehicle?"

Attard countered that shooting at the wheels can cause the vehicle to move out of control and hurt innocent people. Davis said the police have policies to deal with moving vehicles; police are allowed to use their weapons only when someone is in danger.

Chief Davis noted that while he has no problem with the recommendations, there are policies for both. He said police are trained to call for backup in specific situations, but they have to make the call, "sometimes it's necessary to go in without backup. Sometimes backup will create additional problems. The officer knows when he needs to wait for backup. If we had the resources for two person cars, this might not be an issue," he said.

City Council votes to prepare ballot against member moonlighting

The San Jose City Council voted five to four Tuesday to direct City Attorney Rick Doyle to prepare specific language for a November ballot item dealing with council members salaries and with holding jobs off the council.

The language is to be presented at the Aug. 8 council meeting for inclusion onto the Nov. 7 election.

The proposal drew some heated discussion from the council members. While none appeared to care about the salary setting process, four members voted against the measure that would bar any type of paid work for outside entities. Mayor Ron Gonzales told members they could teach classes, for example, if they were not paid to do so.

Gonzales, who wrote the memo along with District 2 Councilman Forrest Williams and District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle, wants all council members to give 100 percent attention to the job, which the three call a full-time position.

The memo lists four areas wherein council members would be barred;

- engaging in active employment paying wages or salaries
- maintaining an active business or profession
- providing services to clients, or
- being engaged in professional or employment activities that require substantial attention.

Council members would still be allowed to have and keep "passive income" such as pensions, dividends, interest from investments and income from property.

The memo states that all council members, including the mayor, should not do any work that interferes with their ability to do their council work in a timely manner. They shouldn't do anything that requires them to abstain on matters before the council or create a perception they are carrying out their council duties.

District 1 Council member Linda LeZotte found the memo "so offensive on so many levels. She joined Madison Nguyen, Chuck Reed, and Dave Cortese in voting against the memo. Those voting for it included Vice Mayor Chavez, Gonzales, Williams, Ken Yeager and Nancy Pyle.

Council votes to hold election for District 6 seat

The San Jose City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to hold an election this November to fill Ken Yeager's District 6 seat. Yeager recently won the Democratic primary election for Santa Clara County District 4 Board of Supervisor's seat currently held by Jim Beall, who is termed out. There is no Republican opposition to Beall's seat. Beall is currently running for a seat in the California Assembly.

In the meantime, all of the community centers are back in the mix to ensure that all options are open for interested parties. Once the meeting dates are determined, they will be announced.