April 21, 2006

District 8 Report

First meeting: Tuesday, May 9

By District 8 Councilmember Dave Cortese
Special to the Times

When I was elected to represent San Jose Council District 8 in 2000, one of my first priorities was to get our neighborhoods more actively involved in the decisions that impacted them.

There were only about six active neighborhood associations at that time. So my staff and I went from neighborhood to neighborhood, holding issue-based meetings, empowering residents and encouraging them to get organized.

Organizing as a group not only provides added clout when dealing with City Hall, it’s a way of bringing people together to discuss options and become part of the solution. Addressing local concerns together, sharing ideas and learning from each other is the way to build healthy neighborhoods, as well as friendships.

I then brought leaders from these neighborhood associations, community action teams, resident action groups and homeowners associations together with representatives from community service organizations like the library, the school districts, the Evergreen Business and Professional Association and the media to form the Evergreen Quarterly Round Table.

This provided an important link directly from the community to my office, especially since the number of neighborhood associations grew to about two dozen. All of these community groups had the opportunity to send a representative to report problems or issues directly to other group representatives and me to solve the problems.

I’ve chaired the round table for the past five years and invited several guest speakers to each meeting to address a wide variety of District 8 and citywide topics of interest, ranging from crime prevention to public art projects. We’ve even taken an annual bus trip to Sacramento every May for the past three years to talk to legislators about making education a higher priority in the state budget.

The round table meetings (and the bus trip) were always open to the public, with time allotted at the end of the meetings for input from the community at large.

New independent body
Today, after many months of creating and adopting a set of by-laws, a new round table is emerging as a public entity completely separate from the District 8 office. You could say the former round table has “grown up.”

This move, something I suggested and supported based on the success of a similar community group in San Jose, gives the round table the power to serve as an independent advisory body for the district, regardless of who sits in the District 8 councilmember’s seat.

This also allows the group to speak to items that fall outside of District 8 boundaries with a more influential voice.

Now called the District 8 Community Round Table, the group has been structured so that representatives of neighborhood associations continue to be strongly represented, but allows for individuals living in District 8 to participate in regular meetings as well. The D8CRT is not meant to replace community groups that meet regularly, but is meant to strengthen them and give them a direct linkage to their elected representatives in San Jose.

The meetings will now be held monthly instead of quarterly.

D8CRT’s objectives
The objectives of the new round table, as written in the D8CRT by laws, are to:

- Serve as a common body to address, research and communicate issues to the greater San Jose Council District 8 communities

- Promote and participate in programs and projects for the betterment of the overall community

- Provide a conduit for expressing the needs and desires of the community on actions of public interest, to the City Council office and City departments

- Serve as a medium of exchange of ideas and information and to present the interests of those within the boundaries of the community

- Provide two-way communication between local government and the residents of San Jose Council District 8

- Act as an advisory and support medium to assist community groups

- Foster an all inclusive, broad and diverse membership

This association will not endorse particular candidates for elected offices or appointed positions, but may endorse or propose measures and initiatives which affect represented communities and the district. The D8CRT is non-commercial, non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-profit.

Moving forward
I’d personally like to congratulate and thank all members of the original round table who gave input and played a role in making the new round table an independent, advisory body.

Association members will be duly appointed by a D8CRT recognized community, business association, or official group—such as youth groups, school districts, religious organizations, etc.—as representatives to the D8CRT. Each association is limited to including two members in the D8CRT.

If think you might be interested in joining the D8CRT as an individual, come to one of the next meetings on Tuesday, May 9 or Tuesday, May 13, at 7 p.m. Locations will be finalized soon. The meetings will still be open to the public, so you don’t have to be a member to attend, but you will not be eligible to vote on topics if you are not a member.

Voting eligibility for all general members shall be based on being an active member for at least 60 days prior to voting on an issue. Initial dues are $25 per each association member and $10 per each individual member per year.

For more information about the D8CRT, location of the upcoming meetings or feedback on issues in your neighborhood, contact Councilmember Dave Cortese and his staff at (408) 535-4908.