BUILDING STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS COMMITTEE

Meeting Report

October 20, 2003

PRESENT: Chair Cindy Chavez, Councilmembers Ken Yeager, Nora Campos and Judy Chirco

STAFF: Jim Holgersson, City Manager’s Office; Mike Hannon and Jamie Mathews, Planning, Building and Code Enforcement; Bob Hines of Tri-County Apartment Association; Sara Hensley, Albert Balagso, Scott Reese, Maria Hurtado and Cynthia Bojorquez, Parks Recreation & Neighborhood Services; Cathy Gaskell, Airport; and Avo Makdessian, Mayor’s Office.

The meeting convened at 1:34 p.m.

a. Community Preservation Ordinance Review (Planning, Building and Code Enforcement)

Mike Hannon introduced Bob Hines, Director of Tri-County Apartment Association. Mr. Hannon, Jamie Matthews and Mr. Hines addressed various questions. Chairperson Chavez stated she needed a better understanding of what Tri-County does and what method they use to track information (outcomes) internally. Mr. Hines stated a checklist in the packet provides the needed information. Tri-County usually does not receive steady feedback since the packet is self-guiding.

Mr. Hannon stated two additional outreach efforts that have been implemented including an insert that highlighted the change in the ordinance that required landscaping for multi-dwelling property owners and incorporated additional training through Project Blossom in the landlord training program.

Councilmember Campos asked, if a property owner goes to the Planning Department or Housing Department for a permit to build onto their home, is there a mechanism in place to find out if they have property not in compliance?

Mr. Hannon stated the City cannot withhold issuance of permits on unrelated property. The departments do communicate if there are issues on the same property and encourage them to bring the property to compliance as soon as possible. They cannot withhold a permit if it is not specifically stated in the compliance. It is to the City’s benefit to get those property owners into compliance and out of the enhanced program.

Councilmember Campos expressed her concerns on having brochures that are multi-lingual. How can we ask residents to comply if they do not understand the warning?

Mr. Hannon stated the brochure is multi-lingual. The warning letters are in English.

Jamie Matthews stated they would review the warning letters and add a contact number for language assistance at the bottom.

Mr. Hannon made corrections to the memo on page 2 stating received complaints are 196 and on page 4 chart compliance achieved is 126.

Councilmember Chirco asked how much would this list change if we were looking at landscaping vs other code violations? If we are looking at the value of the ordinance these numbers are code violations as well as the new landscaping issues.

Mr. Hannon stated when a property is identified as an enhanced property we are looking at all of the property. A property with just landscaping issues would not be considered an enhanced property.

Councilmember Chirco asked what percentage of the property owners does Tri-County represent in San Jose?

Mr. Hines stated it is difficult to have a solid number since their membership has professional property managers. They have various numbers of clients within their management. It is difficult for us to assess the percentage of ownerships, this is always a floating number.

Councilmember Chirco questioned how do property owners get educated if they are not part of the organization?

Mr. Hannon stated when staff does the multi-family program they inspect every apartment complex citywide. When staff encounters properties with landscaping issues during route inspection they provide the education literature to them.

Councilmember Chirco asked what is the cycle?

Mr. Hannon stated on the enhanced property it is typically every three years or more frequently if we receive complaints on the property. For those not in the enhanced category, we inspect every six years or on a complaint basis.

Upon motion of Councilmember Yeager, seconded by Councilmember Chirco, the Committee accepted the Community Preservation Ordinance Update.

b. Review Policies Related to City parks and Open Space (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services)

Sara Hensley addressed the Committee stating there are 19 different school districts and established relationships with all the districts includes over 200 schools and 1,800 acres of school land that is counted as shared use.

Chairperson Chavez asked did the open space from joint use agreements or areas we do not have access to get incorporated into the Greenprint?

Mr. Reese stated the inventory included all school land whether or not the City has access to it. The assumption is the public in some way may have access

Councilmember Chirco questioned when some of these sites are sold off by the school districts are they taken out of the green print?

Mr. Reese stated staff is in contact with the Planning Department to include adding new school sites and subtracting those no longer in use.

Councilmember Campos stated her district looks like she has a lot of land for open space due to Alum Rock Park. How are we playing a role in addressing the issue before the land is sold off for building homes and businesses for neighborhoods that do not have parks?

Ms. Hensley stated several of the school districts are looking at their existing properties not just land but vacant buildings. They are considering areas to be sold to gain capitol dollars to survive. Our strategy is 1) we would look at existing use – is there a building existing on the school site that we would not need to re-build and could re-use, 2) is the land available and in a strategic location identified in an area in need of a park or open space or access for trail use. We would work with the City’s Real Estate Division to work with the school district on a trade, or buyout of land or convince them to keep the property as open space.

Jim Holgersson added another item staff is looking at during the budget process is all of our measurements – performance, per capita like park acreage per population.

Scott Reese narrated the PowerPoint presentation to highlight the nineteen school districts, over 200 schools and over 1,800 acres of school land serving neighborhood and community recreation needs.

Councilmember Chirco asked of the current 1,800 acres what percentage do we have current joint maintenance agreements on?

Mr. Reese stated we are collecting that data and can provide the information once we have reviewed the series of different kinds of agreements and involvements.

Councilmember Chirco asked of the $13 M what percentage of this is already expended in maintaining the school grounds that we currently have joint use agreements on? What percentage are we committed to?

Mr. Reese stated that information would be provided for the Committee.

Ms. Hensley addressed the Committee on how we pull the resources together to help benefit the community and not go out and duplicate our services. This kind of effort with the schools, the County, community based organizations (CBO’s) and other groups can actually make some differences if we are not looking at it separately.

Mr. Reese added it is not how much land you have but what you do with what you have. We are working on concepts relating to capacity of our sites. Optomizing the capacity of our sites to with stand different types of recreational uses. You can over use facilities. We need to make sure those facilities do not erode. They are important to the community as well as our own facilities. Building capacity and sustainable use is what we are looking to accomplish.

Councilmember Campos stated in her district the schools do not want the public on the property after hours. If we were to take out all the open space defined at the schools in her district it would reveal a district that is extremely underserved. There is an illusion of a lot of open space when in reality my community does not have access to this if we pull out the schools open space.

Albert Balagso stated the liabilities of the school districts need to be revisited with the joint use agreements. The big question in those agreements is where does the responsibility of liability begin and end with each entity.

Ms. Hensley added there are always territorial issues and having 19 school districts makes it a little more difficult but it can be done. There is usually a common area.

Chairperson Chavez commented that prior to the Committee discussing how our resources are to be used, we need to redefine our benchmarks and further refine what properties we have access to. Otherwise we do not have the true parameters for governing. The Greenprint needs a mini review focusing on what are we trying to accomplish.

Chairperson Chavez addressed Jim Holgersson and Sara Hensley requesting they work on a timeline that is comfortable to report back to the Committee on how to address the Greenprint with elements that can be further refined and issues on joint use agreements.

Upon motion of Councilmember Campos, seconded by Councilmember Chirco, the Committee accepted the Policies Related to City Parks and Open Space Report, with direction to staff to include in the next update:

· Define the parameters of an agreement for a starting point (general framework).

· Update on open space that is actually out there.

c. Discussion of Strategies for Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) and Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) Outreach (Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services)

Cynthia Bojorquez addressed the Committee on the outreach efforts related to the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) and the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC). Ms. Bojorquez shared some of the efforts in leveraging resources, looking at our service delivery system and making changes to better serve our customers.

Chairperson Chavez asked how is the San Jose Redevelopment Agency (SJRA) included in the distributed memo, where is the partnership?

Jim Holgersson stated staff is working towards the one voice to be presented to Council. It is in the workplan showing the partnership of City, SJRA & PRNS.

Ms. Bojorquez reviewed the PowerPoint presentation that included Newsbrief in Neighborhood Association Newsletters and the Outreach Tracking Sheet.

Councilmember Yeager asked if SNI newsbriefs were only city-wide?

Ms. Bojorquez stated they are going to tailor it to their particular neighborhood but there may be some items that would apply to all areas.

Councilmember Yeager requested the status of the NDC structure and staffing.

Ms. Bojorquez stated the NDC staff report directly to her and she is currently recruiting for the Community Service Supervisor. They are conducting interviews on November 3^rd and hope to have the position filled within two weeks.

Councilmember Yeager inquired if the Neighborhood Associations were going to be applying for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for neighborhood projects. Councilmember Yeager stated he has concerns on applicants being able to have the capacity implement their agreements.

Ms. Bojorquez stated the intent is to build capacity even it is a City application we cannot do it on our own. It is a neighborhood priority that is driving it so we have to work with the community to develop and make sure whatever program application that is submitted is meeting the community need. We will be working with the Neighborhood Associations as a part of the application process.

Mr. Holgersson added that staff in the partnership are working on realignment of resources to move forward, building and focusing on:

- training

- align clear expectations for performance

- identification of new resources

- changing City service delivery to better connect to residents

Chairperson Chavez pointed out concerns with the direction of SNI.

We need to:

1. Be more open about the problems and challenges.

2. Be more effective in managing expectations.

Chairperson Chavez thanked the staff for presenting the report.

This was an informational report and no formal action was taken.

d. Review and Input on the proposed Airport Neighborhood Services Group (ANSG) Workplan (Airport)

Cathy Gaskell reviewed the draft workplan with the Committee. The ANSG had four basic goals of what they wanted to achieve. The strategy was looked at from a “How To,” what is it going to take to get a goal done, the actions to be taken.

Councilmember Yeager stated he had already given his input and feels good about where it is.

Chairperson Chavez began stating one of the challenges she saw was somehow as part of the strategic goals the advocacy that is internal to the Airport needed to be listed. Also, as a group, how does the ANSG make changes, what is the process when it goes internally? For the purpose of those that come after us, a history of changes and improvements made would be beneficial on how the changes came about.

From a Best Practices point of view it is really important to have a brothers and sisters in California but it is also important to look at other airports & facilities throughout the country. Part of what ANSG does is educating and they need to be linked nationally. The underlying activities need to be more defined to demonstrate the advocacy. Who would be the strategic partner, when we go back to see how we did, it would be identified. Working with the travel industry needs to have a clear vision.

Councilmember Yeager suggested in the next quarter an information memo to council staff could follow this workplan. Use it as the working model for further updates.

Ms. Gaskell stated she will clarify the goals discussed.

Mr. Holgersson added this workplan will provide the framework and return to the Committee on a quarterly basis and update the progress.

This was an informational report and no formal action was taken.

e. Oral Petitions

None.

f. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:35 p.m.

Cindy Chavez, Chair

Building Strong Neighborhoods Committee