San Jose, California

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Budget Y Meetings Y Elected Officials Y Administrative Officials P Permits, zoning Y Audits Y Contracts P Lobbying Y Public records Y Local taxes Y Transparency grading process

Portions of this article were taken from Wikipedia.

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County. It is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. The 2010 United States Census reported that San Jose had a population of 945,942. The San Jose/Silicon Valley area is a major component of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.5 million people and the sixth largest metropolitan area (CSA) in the United States.

Last rated on Jan. 31, 2012

The good

• Current and past budget documents are posted.^[1]
• City Council meeting schedule, documents, and videos are posted.^[2][3]
• Contact information is provided for the Mayor and City Council. Term information is also posted.^[4][5]
• Administrators are listed with phone numbers; email addresses are not posted for all administrators.^[6]
• Phone numbers are provided for each city department.^[7]
• Permitting and zoning information is provided.^[8][9]
• Public records request form and procedures are disclosed.^[10]
• Audit reports are posted.^[11]
• Current and past bids are posted, as are quarterly contract reports, but active contract documents are not available.^[12][13]
• Whistleblower Hotline information is posted to report potential fraud with procurement.^[14]
• Local tax information is posted.^[15]
• Information regarding the city's lobbying activities and information for lobbyists is provided.^[16]
• Vendor checks are posted.^[17]

The bad

• Administrator email addresses are not posted.
• Current contracts are not listed.

Budget

The FY 2011-2012 operating budget closes a $115 million shortfall through cuts to city staff and services. The city council approved the budget in June, 2011. Budget requests are originally made by the City Manager.^[18] A longer term Fiscal Reform Plan was adopted in May, 2011 to tackle retirement reform, and close the city's deficit while being able to return services to January, 2011 levels.

Public employees

Elected officials

The city is governed by an elected mayor and a city council, in which each member represents one of ten districts.

Administrative officials

Contact information for key administrative officials can be found here. The City Manager's office oversees the day-to-day operations of all 15 city departments. The City Manager also directs the usage of the city's capital and operating budgets. The City Manager is appointed by the City Council. The current City Manager is Debra Figone.

Public employee salaries

The city discloses 2010 salaries online and employs 5,900 full-time employees in 19 city departments.^[19] The highest paid public employee is the former police chief, Robert Davis, who earned $534,000 in salary and benefits in 2010.^[19] City Manager Debra Figone made more than $276,000 in 2010.

According to the California Public Policy Center the average total annual compensation for a city worker is $150,000. Analyzing salary data from 2011, the group broke out salaries by police department, fire department and all other city departments. ^[20]

Public pensions

In the past 10 years, the city's budget has increase by 21 percent while employee costs have gone up by 87 percent for public employees, and 99 percent for emergency services.^[21] The City owes $5.4 billion in pension benefits and has $1.1 billion in unfunded liability for its pension system and $1.2 billion in unfunded liability for retiree healthcare benefits.^[21][22] According to Mayor Reed, unfunded retirement liabilities are projected to reach $400 million by 2016.

In May, 2011, the city council adopted Mayor Chuck Reed's Fiscal Reform Plan, which attempts to reform the city's pension system. Among the changes to be made:^[23]

• Cap the city's contribution for new employees at 9% of base salary.
• Raise the full retirement benefits age to 60 for public safety employees, and 65 for all other employees.
• Increase the eligibility for retiree health benefits to 20 years of service.
• Limit cost of living adjustments to 1% annually.

Negotiations with employee labor organizations are scheduled to be completed by the end of October, 2011. The package will then be put before voters in time to be included in the city's FY 2012-2013 operating budget.

San Jose actuarial reports show $3.5 billion of city debt for underfunded pension and retiree health benefits -- a shortfall that works out to about $11,000 for every household in the city. The calculations show the city's retirement programs combined have only 56 percent of the funds they should. ^[24]

Due to the enormity of pension issues facing San Jose, a group of state lawmakers launched a campaign for a state legislative audit of the city's finances and pension debts. The audit is in response to a June pension reform ballot measure that the city's mayor is pushing to ease the growing costs of employee retirement. ^[25]

Referendum

The city council in San Jose approved a measure for the June 2012 ballot that would overhaul pensions for city workers to rein in their rising costs. San Jose's measure would place new city employees into a "hybrid" retirement plan combining a traditional pension with 401(k)-like accounts or Social Security. The measure would also give current employees the option of keeping current retirement plans by paying a larger share of their cost or selecting a lower-cost plan. Additionally, the measure would allow the city council to suspend cost-of-living increases for retirees in fiscal emergencies and require voters approve raising retirement benefits. ^[26] On March 6 the city council voted 8-3 to place pension reform measures on the June ballot. ^[27]

Voters in San Jose overwhelmingly supported a plan to overhaul city pensions. The changes called for in the Measure B pension reform include ^[28]

• Current employees keep pension credits already earned but must pay up to 16 percent more of their salary to continue that benefit or choose a more modest and affordable plan for their remaining years on the job.
• Limit retirement benefits for future hires by requiring them to pay half the cost of a pension.
• Suspend current retirees' 3 percent yearly pension raises up to five years if the city declares a fiscal crisis.
• Discontinue "bonus" pension checks to retirees.
• Require voter approval for future pension increases.
• Change disability retirement with the aim of limiting it to those whose injuries prevent them from working.

Six months following the passage of Measure B, city officials are making some progress, but facing other obstacles as "some key, highly trained workers -- chiefly cops and wastewater plant workers -- bolt for better-paid jobs, worsening staffing shortages." That exodus has sharpened the cries of critics who had urged Reed to abandon the ballot measure in favor of a negotiated deal with the city's labor unions and another tax increase. They argue what progress has been made on pension changes -- mostly for new hires -- is overshadowed by legal bills to defend Measure B. The City Council this month set aside $1.2 million for contract lawyers handling the fight. ^[29]

Transparency & public records

In March, 2010, the city approved two new transparency measures designed to increase information available from city officials' private email and phone accounts. Following several public records requests regarding information exchanged with lobbyists by city council members during city council meetings, the city initially adopted rules that require access to all emails and text messages exchanged by city employees during council meetings. Later, the rule was expanded to include all city business dealt with on private email or phone accounts.^[30]

Taxes

The city collects a business tax payable annually. All persons or companies conducting business within San Jose are required to pay the tax, and information is properly presented online. The basic annual tax is $150.00, although many businesses pay an increased amount based on their number of employees.^[31]

Lobbying

Main article: California government sector lobbying

For 2007 and 2008, San Jose spent $435,301 on lobbying. ^[32]

References

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Government	California State Constitution | Executive | House of Representatives | Senate | Local officials | Public school system |
Judiciary	California Supreme Court | Courts of Appeal | Superior Courts | District Courts | Judicial selection in California | Judicial News |
Ballot Measures	2008 Ballot measures | 2008 local ballot measures | City and county ballot initiatives | School district bond issues | Laws governing initiatives | Recall process |