SAN JOSE, Calif.—San Jose’s residents and employees packed the city council chamber on Tuesday night to voice their opinion on the proposed budget cuts and how their communities and jobs will be impacted.
Many emotional comments came from the speakers as the city braces to balance this year’s $115 million budget deficit. Many in the crowd stood in solidarity by wearing a sticker proclaiming: “We are One”
Sherly Hansen, a city employee troubled by the cuts, said, “Please don’t profile us as a big city. We are individuals; we have stories and obligations too.” She went on to say that we have “kept our pledge to the city. We care about the city we serve.”
A second speaker said, “We need our leadership to rise up to this occasion and find real solutions to this problem.” A third commented, “The city can do better than this proposed budget.”
A more comical comment came from an elderly lady whose words were directed at San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. “What happened Chuck? … Get your scissors and throw them away!” she said, followed by cheers from the crowd.
Mayor Reed and the city manager’s staff reiterated after 11 community meetings over the last couple of weeks that the main driver of the deficit is the rising retirement costs. San Jose’s retirements costs are $155 million in 2010-2011, $250 million in 2011-2012, and are projected to reach $400 million within five years. Retirement costs this year are over 30 percent of the general fund.
Mayor Reed stated that the retirement costs are likely to be “as bad or worse” in the future, which is evident from the above trend.
“Balance it the old fashioned way, which is real cuts with real people, affecting real jobs, and that is a terrible thing to have to do. But the 11 of us up here have to work our way through it, to figure out the best way we can, to save as many jobs as we can, as many services as we can,” stressed Reed before opening up the floor to public comment on the proposed budget.
While most of the people in attendance at the meeting seemed to be city employees who are against the proposed budget cuts, everyone is concerned about the future of the city.
Loud applause erupted following the public comment of Grace, who works for the city taking emergency phone calls. She said, “If you couple all of these proposed cuts, we will lose the experienced people who can and do think outside the box. And we will leave our police officers and citizens with a dreadfully degraded support structure.”
Allison, who works as a community organizer, was very concerned about how the proposed cuts will impact low income families. Allison said, “Cuts to neighborhood services do not impact all residents the same.” She pointed out that “the proposed cuts to senior services, community centers, and crime prevention cannot be shouldered by low income families or the agencies that serve them.”
Allison ended her speech by saying, “We urge you to protect critical services such as community centers and get creative.”
A woman speaking through a Spanish translator talked about how the cuts will impact her family: “I’m worried about the community centers here in San Jose… I’m worried about these cuts because these are some of the services that my family uses the most.”
John, a student at Inverness High School, raised similar concerns: “We need our park for family and friends. There will be no place for teens to be safe.”
Judy from District 2 was just as concerned about the reduction of hours at San Jose branch libraries to three days per week. She said that she delivered 500 cards with comments to the city from people in her neighborhood who do not support the reductions.
“I urge you to look for alternatives,” said Judy, who suggested that the councilmembers, mayor, and city manager look into the neighborhood’s first proposal and extend the retirement obligations by two years as an alternative way to reduce the deficit.
Another resident, who would not speak on record, said that she thinks the budget could be balanced differently and not in a way that she says “vilifies city employees,” and hoped to see more creative ways to balance the budget.
While most speakers were not supportive of the proposed cuts, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce bravely spoke in support of the budget at the meeting.
Boos echoed throughout the room after Pat Sausedo, who is Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “The chamber fully supports adopting the budget,” with regard to the 10 percent compensation reduction for employees, contracting our non-core city services, implementing cost containment for employee and retiree health care and pension programs, and eliminating sick leave payoffs.
“For the past 10 years we have seen deficit spending. This is not about trying to get rid of poor employees or bad programs. This is simply about not having enough money,” urged Pat Dando, President of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, who similarly received boos.
There is only a short period of time but a long road ahead before the San Jose City Council votes on the proposed budget in June.
Many emotional comments came from the speakers as the city braces to balance this year’s $115 million budget deficit. Many in the crowd stood in solidarity by wearing a sticker proclaiming: “We are One”
Sherly Hansen, a city employee troubled by the cuts, said, “Please don’t profile us as a big city. We are individuals; we have stories and obligations too.” She went on to say that we have “kept our pledge to the city. We care about the city we serve.”
A second speaker said, “We need our leadership to rise up to this occasion and find real solutions to this problem.” A third commented, “The city can do better than this proposed budget.”
A more comical comment came from an elderly lady whose words were directed at San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. “What happened Chuck? … Get your scissors and throw them away!” she said, followed by cheers from the crowd.
Mayor Reed and the city manager’s staff reiterated after 11 community meetings over the last couple of weeks that the main driver of the deficit is the rising retirement costs. San Jose’s retirements costs are $155 million in 2010-2011, $250 million in 2011-2012, and are projected to reach $400 million within five years. Retirement costs this year are over 30 percent of the general fund.
Mayor Reed stated that the retirement costs are likely to be “as bad or worse” in the future, which is evident from the above trend.
“Balance it the old fashioned way, which is real cuts with real people, affecting real jobs, and that is a terrible thing to have to do. But the 11 of us up here have to work our way through it, to figure out the best way we can, to save as many jobs as we can, as many services as we can,” stressed Reed before opening up the floor to public comment on the proposed budget.
While most of the people in attendance at the meeting seemed to be city employees who are against the proposed budget cuts, everyone is concerned about the future of the city.
Loud applause erupted following the public comment of Grace, who works for the city taking emergency phone calls. She said, “If you couple all of these proposed cuts, we will lose the experienced people who can and do think outside the box. And we will leave our police officers and citizens with a dreadfully degraded support structure.”
Allison, who works as a community organizer, was very concerned about how the proposed cuts will impact low income families. Allison said, “Cuts to neighborhood services do not impact all residents the same.” She pointed out that “the proposed cuts to senior services, community centers, and crime prevention cannot be shouldered by low income families or the agencies that serve them.”
Allison ended her speech by saying, “We urge you to protect critical services such as community centers and get creative.”
A woman speaking through a Spanish translator talked about how the cuts will impact her family: “I’m worried about the community centers here in San Jose… I’m worried about these cuts because these are some of the services that my family uses the most.”
John, a student at Inverness High School, raised similar concerns: “We need our park for family and friends. There will be no place for teens to be safe.”
Judy from District 2 was just as concerned about the reduction of hours at San Jose branch libraries to three days per week. She said that she delivered 500 cards with comments to the city from people in her neighborhood who do not support the reductions.
“I urge you to look for alternatives,” said Judy, who suggested that the councilmembers, mayor, and city manager look into the neighborhood’s first proposal and extend the retirement obligations by two years as an alternative way to reduce the deficit.
Another resident, who would not speak on record, said that she thinks the budget could be balanced differently and not in a way that she says “vilifies city employees,” and hoped to see more creative ways to balance the budget.
While most speakers were not supportive of the proposed cuts, the San Jose Chamber of Commerce bravely spoke in support of the budget at the meeting.
Boos echoed throughout the room after Pat Sausedo, who is Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, said, “The chamber fully supports adopting the budget,” with regard to the 10 percent compensation reduction for employees, contracting our non-core city services, implementing cost containment for employee and retiree health care and pension programs, and eliminating sick leave payoffs.
“For the past 10 years we have seen deficit spending. This is not about trying to get rid of poor employees or bad programs. This is simply about not having enough money,” urged Pat Dando, President of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, who similarly received boos.
There is only a short period of time but a long road ahead before the San Jose City Council votes on the proposed budget in June.
