Crime Doesn't Pay, But We Do

By Jim Cogan

The title of this blog is one of the mottos that we have used over the years. It speaks to the simplicity of the program and its power over crime. This was a quiet month for Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers. We have 14 current cases under investigation, but only one closed last month. The one that closed was a great example of how crime doesn’t pay, but we do.

We received a tip drugs were being sold out of a house in San José. Police set up surveillance at the home and witnessed the suspect leaving with an accomplice. The officers followed them and were able to stop them on a traffic violation. After they stopped the car, they observed the suspects tossing bags of what later turned out to be marijuana out of the car. Officers recovered approximately half a pound of marijuana valued at $1,000, drug paraphernalia, and $1,000 in cash. The suspects will face criminal charges and jail time while the tipster will receive a reward. Crime doesn’t pay, but we do.

At Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, we are proud of our impressive record of success, but we are also proud of the exceptional work performed by the men and women of Santa Clara County’s law enforcement community. Every year, we recognize their service by hosting an awards dinner where every jurisdiction is offered the opportunity to nominate an officer or team of officers who have distinguished themselves in the line of duty. Over the years, we have recognized heroes who day in and day out put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. We have honored law enforcement professionals who go the extra mile to get the job done, and it is our privilege to thank them for making us all a little safer.

This year’s awards dinner will be held on November 13th at San José’s Forth Street Summit Center. For more information, please call Councilmember Pete Constant’s office at (408) 535-4901. This is a great event that will show you why we live in one of the safest regions in the Country. Together we will thank the men and women who protect San José and all of Silicon Valley.

Jim Cogan is President of Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers.

Where's the Accountability?

By Pete Constant

How many times have you read an article online or in a newspaper that questions whether the San José Police Department holds its officers fully accountable for their actions? To be honest, I’ve lost count.

In 1993, the City of San José opened the office of the Independent Police Auditor (IPA). This newly created position was designed specifically to ensure that police officers were held accountable for their actions and to ensure that the police Internal Affairs Unit did not whitewash investigations of misconduct.

Approximately 4 years ago the San José City Council appointed Barbara Attard to be the IPA for a four year term. Since Attard lived in San Francisco, the city council provided her relocation assistance and a $250,000 executive home loan so that she could live in the community she served. When her term of office ended at the end of 2008 the city council decided to not re-appoint her. Attard continued to make her payments on her executive home loan for 3 months, and then abruptly stopped paying – even though she continued to make her first mortgage payments to her mortgage company. Months later, she informed the City of San José that she could not sell her home so she offered the city a deed to the property in lieu of foreclosure. Of course, there was still the matter of the first mortgage, so the city would have to pay off that loan in order to take possession of the home. Unfortunately, the city council agreed with this, voting to approve the settlement (9-2, with Councilmember Campos and myself voting against).

So she walked away from her obligations, leaving the taxpayers holding the bag – nearly $350,000 in loan forgiveness, and now the residents of San José own a downtown condo that might be worth $240,000 - if you could even sell it in today’s market.

So I ask, where did the concept of accountability go?

Four and a half years ago the city council approved this home loan, even though it appears to fail to meet the spirit or even the letter of the Executive Home Loan Program. After all, the intent of the loan program was to help new executive relocate to San José, an area long known for its high housing prices. But Attard was coming from San Francisco, an area with even higher housing costs.

Can anyone really argue that accepting a job 40 miles or so from your home requires relocation? Many hardworking city employees and taxpayers commute farther than that every day to their jobs.

The Executive Home Loan Program also specifically states that these loans are for the executive’s “principal residence.” While it was well known that Attard maintained her San Francisco residence during her employment, it is less known that Attard maintained her voter registration in San Francisco County and continued to vote in elections there while she was employed as the IPA. Remember, if you move, you are required to re-register to vote when you move to a new residence. Additionally, Attard never filed for a Homeowner’s Property Tax Exemption in Santa Clara County, but did keep the Homeowner’s Property Tax Exemption on file for her San Francisco residence. You can see that to claim this exemption, you must certify, under penalty of perjury, that you occupy your home as your “principal residence”.

So did Attard qualify for an Executive Home Loan to purchase her principal residence? I don’t think so, it’s clear to me she didn’t think it was her principal residence.

So where’s the accountability? Is the city council not responsible for approving this loan? Most of that council is no longer in office, so I guess not. Is Attard responsible for leaving the taxpayers holding the bag? I guess not, since the city attorney has informed the council that we have no other recourse. In fact, the city’s Finance Department doesn’t even think we are able to report the default to the credit reporting agencies.

With the city unable to provide essential services, can we really afford to buy a condo?

I, for one, am not willing to sit by and just let this go. I have asked the city manager to not offer this Executive Home Loan to any new hires until the Council can conduct a full review of the program, and I have asked for an investigation into the facts of the case.

Pete Constant is serving his first term on the San Jose City Council representing District 1 (West San Jose).

Your Budget Solutions

EDITOR’S NOTE: As promised, here are some reader suggestions for solving San Jose’s chronic budget deficits, taken from comments posted in response to a blog by Bobby Lopez on Friday, June 19th. Selections have been edited for readability and length but remain true to the words and intent of the authors.

We’ve also received several interesting ideas through anonymous tips on our Contact page. We’ll examine some of those as we continue to dissect this troubling (and popular) issue. Keep ‘em coming...

Anonymous
How about cutting all the money that gets directed to "new plants" along the Coleman/880 interchange, or the money spent on a mural for the new high-rise parking garage at the SJ Airport? Or perhaps the Saigon business, err, Little Saigon banners should go. Is all that crap really necessary?

Dan Steeley
I read Herhold religiously and on most things he has the pulse of the community right on. But when he defends a Mariachi festival, there's no way he's going to win an argument in my Rose Garden neighborhood. Nothing wrong with festivals, but there is something wrong with wasting money.

Kathleen
Yeah, we need a festival over Neighborhood Watch Programs, Gang and ID Theft Prevention, Child Safety, and Business Watch Programs... NOT! It must be nice to live in a world where public safety isn't a priority but fun is! Welcome To Figone Fantasy Land where crime and mayhem doesn’t exist... I don’t think people realize how much wasteful spending goes on in all government agencies. $50K is one full time position for a GA service worker, two Council Aide positions, one EA position; I think you get the point. The sad fact is that the City Manager, and the Council seem to lack the concept of prioritizing things that money should be allocated to and fall victim to sentiment instead of focusing on necessities.

C.S.
You gotta watch out for the city manager. She has a bad habit of misleading the Mayor and Council about the budget. She protects her own employees and sells citizens and police down the river... Figone put every public safety program and department on the chopping block but passed out big cash prizes to pet projects. Good thing Mayor Reed knew better and listened to the public or we'd be in deeper poo than we are now... Some of these non-profits are a joke but they keep getting millions. Many offer the exact same services, so we don’t need ‘em. And don’t even get me started on the overpaid consultants the City hires to tell them how to do things that these overpaid supervisors should already know how to do. If private companies ran their businesses like this they’d be long gone by now. Not to mention throwing millions into downtown. Give it a break already. We could have hired 25 police officers for the money they’ve wasted on that dumb effort.

Crimefighter
Scott, the problem is not just the $50,000 for this festival... If we added up all the small amounts, it soon becomes real money... Real people are losing their jobs, and you want cultural festivals? Talk about being out of touch.

Councilman Pete Constant
What was not mentioned in Scott's column is the fact that the Mariachi Festival already receives over $1,000,000 in donated advertising and marketing each year. This figure was provided to me directly by Marcela Davison Aviles who is president and CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corp., which produces the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. She also references this figure in her June 3, 2009, opinion piece in the Mercury News. Give me $1M, and I bet I could make any business or event successful without additional money from the city!

Anonymous
What about the money the SJPD spends on having a helicopter waste gas watching people with clipboards and video cameras who are watching police? Is that a good way to spend our money? I am sure the gas for a helicopter to go around in circles for 20 minutes is quite expensive. Oh, and don’t let me forget about the outside firms hired to scrutinize SJPD's questionable tactics. More waste with much haste. And how about the officers hitting on the girls at the nightclubs every weekend? I am glad we are paying for SJPD's social time as well.

Anonymous
Lets not forget how we were conned into believing that the new (and UGLY) city hall which we just "had to have!" cost triple what we, the public, were told... Oh yeah, they left out the cost of the marble floors and new artwork for the walls (as if anybody would care if it wasn’t there) and all of the millions of dollars in interest payments, too.

San Jose’s Budget: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

By Pete Constant

The City of San Jose’s budget has been the center of conversation for quite some time now. Worry and frustration has turned to happiness and accomplishment. But before we break our arms patting ourselves on the back, I think we ought to evaluate the good in the context of the bad — and the ugly.

The Good

We have a balanced budget, on time.

This represents a significant accomplishment given that the San Jose, like most governments, faces some serious financial issues.

Most importantly, this budget preserves critical public safety services by restoring the Park Rangers, the Horse Mounted Unit, a Traffic Enforcement Team, police patrol staffing, the Crime Prevention Unit, and staffing for two fire stations that were slated for closure. These are all essential city services that the public relies on and deserves.

The Bad

This year’s $85 million deficit comes on the heels of seven years of deficits, bringing the cumulative shortfall to $425 million. Deferred infrastructure repairs and improvements have an estimated value of over $800 million – not counting the needs of our city and regional parks. Then there are the other long-term liabilities like City Hall debt service, unfunded retirement, and health care liabilities.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to the bad news. Sales tax revenues have fallen far below estimates. Property tax revenues continue to fall. The state is looking to take and borrow money from cities in an attempt to balance their budget. There is no way to predict if all of this will wreak havoc our newly-balanced budget. Surely, we will be back to the balancing act in just a few short months.

The Ugly

We have a budget system that is "broke" — and there doesn’t seem to be a will to fix it.

San Jose’s budget process is clearly in conflict with the needs of the general public. Time after time, survey after survey, email after email, the residents of San Jose have made it clear: Public safety is their number one priority. Yet our process brought a proposed budget to the council that contained draconian cuts to public safety.

CPR classes were slated for elimination, saving $55,000, while marketing for the Mariachi Festival was added, at a cost of $50,000. This is just one example of bureaucratic priorities out of sync with the priorities of our residents.

In San Jose, it seems, all budget dollars are equal. A dollar for advertising is equal to a dollar for training that can save someone’s life. A dollar for buying refreshments at a community meeting is equal to a dollar for crime prevention.

I think this is wrong! I hope you do, too.

As the council voted to pass the budget, I pleaded with my colleagues to change the process. I urged that we categorize spending into four simple categories: things we must do, things we should do, things we would like to do, and, of course, things we should not do.

Once we do that, we must prioritize spending. Fully fund the things we must do, then fund the things we should do, and then — if the money’s available — start to fund the things we would like to do. And by all means, we need to shy away from things that have nothing to do with the responsibilities of local government.

Only then will we give our residents the essential public safety services they deserve, provide the infrastructure we need, and meet our obligations to our employees.

Pete Constant is in his first term on the San Jose City Council representing District 1 (West San Jose).