January 26, 2007

Large turnout for city budget priority setting meeting

Community association members help mayor set goals, priorities

By Ali Abdollahi
Staff Writer

More than 100 people representing dozens of neighborhood and community associations attended and enthusiastically participated in a priority setting session at San Jose City Hall on Jan. 20. Attendance was so high for the Saturday morning event that the group overflowed the Committee Room and spilled over into the City Council chambers, where the meeting was broadcast on a large screen.

After a welcome by Mayor Chuck Reed, the group was led by facilitator Marilyn Snider of Snider and Associates. The group spent four hours discussing what is and is not working for the city, and brainstorming key objectives and ways to achieve them.

What is going well in San Jose?
The meeting began on a positive note, with attendees and recorders creating an extensive list of things they felt were going well in San Jose. The list included items such as neighborhood involvement, low-income housing, loan and housing programs for teachers, the Anti-Graffiti and Anti-Litter programs, the Anti-Gang Task Force and programs that work with at-risk youth, the city’s active embrace of diversity, and San Jose’s increased national visibility, particularly being noted as the “safest big city” in the nation.

What is not going well in San Jose?
Despite the impressive list of positives, the group created an even longer list of things they felt was not working in San Jose. The items that prompted the loudest cheers of approval were: Short-sighted development plans, lack of funds for public safety, the lack of a hospital in the downtown area, poor street conditions, too much traffic in residential neighborhoods, too much high-density housing without planned open space for parks and sports fields and unnecessary force by the police.

Three-year goals
The group then held a brainstorming session to suggest long-term goals and priorities, then voted to select five specific goals.

- Increase the number of jobs is the city
To accomplish this goal, the group suggested action steps such as reducing over-regulation of businesses and streamlining the permit process to encourage businesses and corporations to locate themselves and remain in San Jose.

- Improve proactive code enforcement
To help the city become more efficient in enforcing city codes, possible one-year action steps suggested included improved communication between city code enforcement officials and the neighborhoods, better informing the community regarding what the codes are, and improving Internet and telephone access for reporting code violations.

- Provide full funding for parks, pools, community centers and libraries
The phrase “full funding” was meant to reference enough funds to not only support the physical facilities, but also maintenance, operation and staffing for those facilities. Suggested action steps for this three-year goal included seeking corporate or individual funding, investigating the feasibility of a parcel tax, and tapping into the Open Space Authority Fund.

- Improve community policing in the neighborhoods
Many in attendance called for better policing in residential areas. Some of the action steps suggested to attain that goal were creating more neighborhood watch programs, lengthening the rotation of officers in the neighborhoods (particularly after 10 p.m.), increased police presence in parks with known gang and drug activity, more bilingual officers, and improved cultural sensitivity by police.

- Improve General Fund revenue
This proved to be the most difficult three-year goal to address with specific action steps. Some of the general steps suggested included developing a program through the Office of Economic Development to retain retail business, and promoting San Jose as a destination for tourism and conventions.

“This type of community outreach is a great step in keeping the neighborhoods integrated with the city,” said attendee Jim Zito of the District 8 Community Roundtable.

Almaden Valley Community Association representative Bob Boydston said that the meeting was an excellent method of ensuring that the concerns of his neighborhood, and all San Jose neighborhoods were heard. “I was able to make my points about concerns of the Almaden community, such as code violation enforcement and the impact of the Coyote Development on traffic in Almaden,” said Boydston. “And I thought that getting over 100 community leaders from across the city was brilliant. What better group to hear from than the people who are aware and concerned about their local community problems?”

Next steps
After the meeting, the notes of the brainstorming and conversation were distributed electronically to neighborhood associations, Reed, the City Council and senior staff. A hearing session will then be held on Feb. 13 for stakeholders to address the city council in their efforts to develop budget priorities. The mayor, city council and senior staff will use the findings from the two meetings during a strategic planning retreat in which they will develop a mission statement, identify three-year goals, develop initial six-month strategic objectives, and determine a further follow-up process.

“I can’t believe (Snider) was able to get this large of a group moving in the same direction,” Reed said to the crowd at the conclusion of the meeting. “Your input is going to be very helpful to me, and the council will find it helpful to them.”