September 13, 2007

City approves casino nights for nonprofits

Council accepts first report on new parking fees

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Rich Crowley began passing out invitations on Sept. 11, just minutes after the city council unanimously approved an ordinance amending the city’s gaming control laws to allow gambling and/or casino nights for nonprofit fundraisers.

“The second first annual Almaden Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament” will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Santa Clara County Horseman’s Association. Two years ago, the attorney general’s office nixed the same fundraiser two days before it was supposed to happen.

“The money we intended to raise was to fund improvements to the children’s story time area of the new Almaden Branch Library,” said Crowley, current president of the Almaden Business Organization to council members. “When our story was told in the press, the outrage from the public helped to generate not only contributions for the library from people like the Brandenberg Family Foundation and the San Jose Firefighters Association, but it also helped create a statewide groundswell that resulting in the passage of AB 839, which officially sanctioned such events on a very limited and controlled basis.”

Crowley further explained the amendment would allow nonprofits to hold only one event in any calendar year. “The maximum value of prizes set by the state does not make these events attractive to professional gamblers or people with gambling addiction,” he said.

He was joined by a couple of other public speakers, including San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Pat Dando and a mother of a Bellarmine student, both asking the council to pass the amendment.

Parking fee report
The initial report on the increased parking fee pilot program that began in July appears to be on target, according to Jim Ortbal, assistant director of transportation, and Dan Katz, deputy chief of police.

Council members voted last spring to charge fees for parking in city lots after 10 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The $5 fee provides funds to power wash the garages as well as landscaping and other maintenance and police patrols in the parking structures.

The program is more than paying for itself, Ortbal told council members, with revenues in July and August at about $53,000 and expenses at $50,000. The parking lots are also cleaner and safer, he added.

Six officers and a sergeant patrol the garages from 9:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. those weekend nights. In the two months ending Aug. 31, police issued 358 citations in the Market Street Garage and 131 in the Third Street Garage.

Council members were curious about underage drinkers and decreased parking numbers. Katz noted that there’s been a reduction of cruising and loitering in the garages since the police started patrolling. “It doesn’t appear that minors are drinking in the garages. The $5 parking rate deters those who were going in the garages just to drink,” Katz said.

Ortbal noted that parking in the lots has decreased, but that the garages are still “busy places.” Average entries are about 800 cars versus 1,200 before the fees went into effect. Many are now parking on the street, which is free, he added.

While this report did not include sales tax data from businesses before and after the fees, Orball said his office is talking with 39 businesses and will continue to follow up. However, business activity from May through August of this year was higher than the same period a year ago, he said.

“So far, we’ve noticed no adverse impact [on business]. There’s been heavy activity at 1:30 a.m., the police are doing a good job and the atmosphere is better. The garages are cleaner,” Ortbal said.

The two will report back to the city council in November. The council unanimously accepted and approved the report.

Clarifying expense policies
Tighter rules for council expenditures and reimbursements were also on the agenda. Within the past year, there’s been discussion over the ethics of council members being reimbursed by the city—following Mayor Chuck Reed’s pay back to the city of $39,000 during last year’s mayoral campaign. Reed had used city-funded expenses for memberships, advertisements and admission to various political and religious functions.

At that time, there were no exact guidelines other than using the money for public purposes. Most council members had “friends or office holder accounts,” which are political accounts used to pay for such expenses.

After Reed’s problem, council members requested that the city clerk set up guidelines for approval. The budget gives council members $252,100 per year and the mayor nearly $1.5 million.

City Clerk Lee Price presented a list of policies and strict guidelines for use of the money. Council members and the mayor may not use the money for membership dues or ads, and not for religious or political purposes, but can use the funds to attend city-sponsored events or fundraisers for local, civic, cultural, charitable or educational organizations. The council members unanimously asked her to return with guidelines for their approval.

They also discussed and unanimously agreed to determine methods to eliminate the friends or office holder accounts.

Interim auditor
Also Sept. 11, the city council unanimously appointed Steven M. Hendrickson as interim auditor, replacing Gerald Silva who held the job for 22 years before being fired on Aug. 28. Reports indicate that Silva will exercise his rights to appeal.

Hendrickson was coordinating city auditor operations while Silva was on administrative leave.

“Steven Hendrickson will provide the expertise that the auditor’s office needs while the council conducts a national search for a new city auditor,” said Reed. “The city council and I are confident that Steve will provide excellent leadership during this period of transition and will maintain the independence and integrity of the office.”

Hendrickson retired from the California Bureau of State Audits in October 2006 as chief deputy state auditor, a position he held for five years. Before that he was an audit principal with the bureau, managing aspects of the performance and compliance audits. Prior to joining the state bureau, he held management and supervisory positions with the California Auditor General’s office and the California Public Employees Retirement System. Before that he worked at the San Francisco regional office of the U.S. General Accounting Office.

He was recognized twice by the California legislature in 1992 and 2000 for contributions to citizens of the state. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and public administration.