The first community budget meeting of 2011 was held last Wednesday at the Southside Community & Senior Center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process, the Mayor’s office, in conjunction with the Council offices and City Manager’s office, holds budget meetings in each district during the months of April and May following the approval of the Mayor’s budget message (see my last blog entry). The purpose of these meetings is to give the City the opportunity to communicate directly with San Jose residents about the deficit and the preliminary solutions for balancing the budget. More importantly, it is also an opportunity for residents to ask questions and express their opinions about the budget and the city services that are most important to them.
I was very pleased to have a full house at Southside, but what made me happier was not only the fact that the attendees asked a lot of questions, but that their questions showed that San Jose residents are very informed about the budget situation.
The meeting started off with an announcement that the current budget deficit, previously stated to be $105 million, is now projected to be just under $115 million. The presentation then turned to the City’s plan for resolving the budget deficit based upon the principles set forth in the Mayor’s budget message that I discussed in my last blog entry. Four general strategies were discussed: dealing with limited additional funding sources (which focused on the fact that the City is not seeking any tax increases); seeking expanded employee concessions (which focused on the fact that even if all of the unions agree to 10% reductions in compensation, it will only result in savings of $38 million); implementing new service delivery models/efficiencies (which basically means that the City will try to outsource a lot of services, such as graffiti removal, parks maintenance, and police and fire services at the airport); and implementing service reductions/eliminations (which means exactly what it sounds like: cutting or reducing services).
The meeting then turned to more specific proposals, including laying off police officers, reducing branch library days to three per week, delaying the opening of recently-constructed libraries, community centers, and the police substation in District 2, and closing five hub community centers.
After the presentation, it was the residents’ turn to be heard, and they didn’t disappoint. Questions included whether the City was focusing enough on attracting new businesses to San Jose (a point that I raised at a recent Council meeting), whether the City should try putting a sales tax increase measure on the ballot, and the future of the senior nutrition program (the Mayor’s budget message does include funding for the nutrition program, but at a reduced level). The issue that seemed to generate the most questions and comments was the proposed outsourcing of city services. Many in attendance questioned the assumption that the same quality of services can be provided simply by giving the responsibility to an outside company. Others discussed whether the City was being disloyal to employees by resorting to outsourcing. In particular, many expressed dismay over the plan to outsource the City’s anti-graffiti department, which has become a nationwide model for its ability to quickly and effectively responses to graffiti-related issues.
Other issues that were raised included whether raising the retirement age for police and firefighters was a good idea given the physical nature of their jobs, a point that I raised during the City Council meeting where the Mayor’s budget message was discussed. One person asked whether asking for 10% cuts across the board from unions made sense, since different union employees make significantly different salaries.
I was very pleased to see a large number of city employees present at the meeting. While I feel that this year’s negotiations have been less antagonistic than last year, it is clear that many city employees still feel, understandably, that they are being blamed for the deficit. I believe it was a good thing for residents to hear directly from the employees who take care of their streets, their parks, and provide so many services that we often take for granted.
The next several weeks will be very busy with budget-related items. The proposed Capital Budget will be released on April 20th, and the proposed Operating Budget will be released on May 2nd. The City Council will hold budget study sessions between May 11th and May 19th, and public budget hearings will be held in the evening between May 17th and June 13th.
If you were unable to attend Wednesday’s Community Budget Meeting, I highly recommend that you attend one of the upcoming ones. The schedule for upcoming meetings can be accessed here:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/BudgetInfoCommMeetings.asp
