CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION

PROPOSED 2003-2004 OPERATING BUDGET

May 16, 2003

PRESENT: Campos, Chavez, Chirco, Cortese, Dando, Gregory, LeZotte, Reed, Williams, Yeager; Gonzales

ABSENT: None.

STAFF: City Manager Del Borgsdorf, City Attorney Richard Doyle, Assistant City Manager Mark Linder, Budget Director Larry D. Lisenbee, Assistant Budget Director Jennifer Maguire, Mayor’s Budget and Policy Director Joe Guerra, Mayor’s Budget and Policy Assistants, Meghan Horrigan, and Jennifer Galliart, Assistant City Clerk Nancy Alford and Legislative Secretary Helen Moreno

The meeting was called to order at 8:08 a.m. in Council Chambers, City Hall, to continue discussion on the proposed 2003-04 Operating Budget.

PROPOSED 2003-2004 OPERATING BUDGET (Continued from 5/15/03.)

Documents Filed: (1) Hard copy of the Staff slide presentation on the Transportation Services CSA for Transportation, Police and Public Works. (2) Hard Copy of the Staff slide presentation on the Aviation CSA for Airport, Public Works, Police, Economic Development, Conventions, Arts and Entertainment, Fire and Transportation.

Transportation Services CSA

Transportation Director James R. Helmer joined by Chief of Police William M. Lansdowne, Assistant Transportation Director Jim Ortbal, and Deputy Transportation Director Kevin O’Connor presented a comprehensive summary of the program and the viable choices.

Mayor Gonzales referenced the issue of re-striping streets after projects are completed with outside contractors that are not doing so, and directed Staff to provide stronger language with the possibility of a penalty fine for those projects where re-striping has not been completed, and for projects which are performed in-house, directed Staff to provide performance measurements of those in-house projects.

Police Department

Council Member Chavez inquired about Traffic Safety Services and whose responsibility it is to clean up after car accidents and requested Staff to review what the penalties are with City contracts for those people responsible for cleaning up debris after an accident.

Council Member Chavez referenced the safety issue of downtown pedestrians jay walking through unsafe construction sites where there are no sidewalks and requested Staff to enforce jay walking citations to those violators during peak times.

Vice Mayor Dando questioned the cost of off duty police hires during special events and weekends, and the cost to administer the program not being a neutral impact to the budget, and requested Staff to provide what the percentage increase would be if the Events Administration paid for the off duty officers.

Council Member Gregory inquired about the school zone drop-off and pick-up times of children, and expressed concern about the unsafe traffic behaviors when children are being dropped off at school, and requested Staff to provide a list of which schools have been recommended for traffic calming and safety reorganization.

Department of Transportation

Mayor Gonzales referenced street sweeping and the parking enforcement employees, and requested Staff to review the possibility of those employees being paid out of the Storm Drain Fund.

Mayor Gonzales inquired about the volunteer Vehicle Spotters Program, which helps with the enforcement of parked cars during street sweeping, and requested Staff to review the Program and its application to find better ways to help enforce that program.

Mayor Gonzales referenced page 608, Transportation Department Reorganization and commented that reorganization was difficult to follow and requested Staff to provide a clear explanation of the reorganization and figures.

Council Member Gregory referenced page 604, Performance and Resource Overview on On- Street Parking second paragraph, signs that prohibit parking during street sweeping will be added to 85 new curb areas and requested Staff to provide a list particularly in the SNI District areas in District 7 and Council Member Campos also requested a list for District 5.

Council Member Gregory commented on page 614, Neighborhood Business Districts Street Sweeping regarding the elimination of street sweeping in neighborhood business districts and requested Staff to correct the explanation of funding more accurately.

Council Member Cortese referenced Pavement Maintenance and expressed concern of decreasing funding for sidewalk maintenance and running the increased risk of new injury claims to the City from people being hurt due to sidewalk damage, and requested between now and adoption of the budget that DOT work with the City Attorney’s Office to do an internal cost benefit analysis.

Council Member Cortese inquired regarding page 609, Transportation Assets and Services that Enhance Community Livability and expressed concern over the elimination of an Assistant City Arborist, and requested Staff review ways to help alleviate the burden of responsibility on the City Arborist by finding ways to dissipate and spread that burden over the entire organization, and all policy discussion needs to be referred back to the Committee level to better utilize volunteers and the possibility of establishing a City Street Tree Commission.

Council Member Cortese commented on the Sidewalk Program and what is current, and if the grant program applies only to single-family residential citizens of San José or multi-family and commercial properties, and requested Staff review the potential of leveraging sidewalk funds by offering 50 percent grants to increase funding for repairs and decreasing liability.

Council Member LeZotte referenced page 635, regarding items that were dropped off from Activity and Workload Highlights performance measures and requested Staff to provide the performance measurement changes specifically for Safety Improvement Studies and Installations, and when an item is dropped off from one page to another requested Staff to indicate that for tracking purposes.

Transportation Services CSA City Wide Expenses

No questions.

Transportation Services CSA Strategic State Budget Contingency Plan

No questions.

Aviation Services, CSA

Aviation Director Ralph G. Tonseth, Assistant Aviation Director Frank Kirkbride, Deputy Director, Finance & Administration Terri Gomes, Airport Ombudsman Cathy Gasgill presented a comprehensive summary of the airport meeting the transportation needs of the community in a safe, efficient, and cost effective manner.

Airport Department

Mayor Gonzales expressed confusion regarding page 19, Activity & Workload Highlights, the total number of hours parking lots are operated per month being difficult to understand, and requested Staff to list parking lot hours by day or per week.

The Council recessed at 12:00 p.m. to meet again on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 at 8:00 a.m. to begin review of the Fiscal Year 2003-2004 Proposed Capital Budget and Fiscal Year 2004-2008 Capital Improvement Program starting with Aviation Services CSA.

NANCY ALFORD, ASSITANT CITY CLERK