BUILDING STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS COMMITTEE
Meeting Report
November 17, 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; Carl Mosher,
Environmental Services; Jim Helmer, Department of Transportation; Sara Hensley,
Cynthia Bojorquez, Joe Cardinalli, Cora Velasco, Jill Cody, PRNS; Olivia Nunez,
Chad Payne, Mayor’s Office.
The meeting convened at 1:33
p.m.
a.
Review San Jose’s Vehicle Abatement Policies (Planning, Building and
Code Enforcement)
Mike Hannon, Deputy Director
of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement (PBCE) introduced Jamie Mathews who
presented the Vehicle Abatement Program report.
Jamie Matthews stated the
Vehicle Abatement Program is a popular program. They have eight vehicle abatement officers city-wide. Almost 28,000 service requests in FY 2002-03
and 99% have been resolved. They towed
4,123 vehicles off the streets, and issued 3,209 citations. That is not a high number of citations
because they are more likely to tow than to cite if it is truly an abandoned
vehicle.
Chairperson Chavez asked how does the public know
about this program?
Mr. Matthews stated flyers are distributed.
Chairperson Chavez asked if the City makes money on
this program by selling the vehicle parts?
Mr. Matthews informed the Committee that the
vehicles are under a tow contract; they take the vehicle and part it out, but
they are usually vehicles that do not have a lot of value. The cost of that is already in the
negotiated contract. The contract changed
the rate from $43 to $50 and that represents, for next year, over $206,000 the
program will bring in if they keep the same numbers or more. The money colected goes to the General
Fund.
Customers can reach Vehicle Abatement via the hot
line any time, the PBCE Call Center during the day, the City Call Center at any
time, or they can email PBCE via the web.
PBCE is looking for opportunites to expand the vehicle spotter
program. PBCE staff enters into a
partnership with a citizens group that is concerned about vehicles excessively
stored in their neighborhood. Staff
goes through the neighborhood and tags the vehicles, and the citizens group
will advise them if the vehicle is still there after 72 hours. Staff then returns to the vehicle and either
cites the vehilce or has it towed. It
gives PBCE an opporutnity to get the neighborhod involved. There is interest from a number of
neighborhood associations. Generalized
training is provided to give them tools and guidelines to follow.
Mr. Matthews reveiwed the AVASA program chart with
the Committee.
Chairperson Chavez asked how
much money was generated from the AVASA program?
Mr. Matthews stated he did
not have that number but will provide that information to the Committee.
Chairperson Chavez stated
given the kind of work done in Code Enforcement this department needs to grow especially
based on SNI. How do we start to
re-build our infrastructure? What is
our strategy for growing? What does one
person equal?
Councilmember Yeager asked
how many vehicle abatement officers
were cut last year? Did the cuts reduce
the vehicle abatement?
Mr. Hannon stated he did not
believe any officers were cut last budget year. Staff was looking to actually add vehicle abatement officers
through the tow contract. PBCE could
have added officers through the additional revenue received from the tow
contract, however, decided to spare one or two code enforcement officers
instead of adding one or two vehicle abatement officers. We never anticipated that this program was
going to be cut.
Yeager stated in the report
the response time going from 6 days to 8 days.
What is the definition of days?
Mr. Hannon stated they have
seen a 20% increase this fiscal year in terms of the number of compliants
coming in and that has moved response time to 8 days. Generally the days are just work days and do not have the officer
working on the weekends.
Councilmember Yeager stated
his overall concern is when staff are doing these types of reports they put
their best foot forward and ultimately this may not help the front line. I see a lot of red flags with this
report. I hope we can talk about ways
to reduce the true average response time.
During the budget sessions we need to know what the effects of those
cuts will be.
Mr. Matthews added generally
when we look at cuts we look at the General Fund parts of all programs. That is the focus of the budget and we are
trying to be very creative. If service
goes up and we do not increase or maintain our staff, there will be a service reduction. We are focusing on maintaining and improving
our efficiencies or our existing resources.
Chairperson Chavez stated in
the body of the report you recognize that it is actually 18 days before a case
is closed and if that 18 days includes weekends then it is really a month. A lot of citizens look at this as a case
closure. This is important looking at
the average and what we are doing today.
Councilmember Yeager added
staff needs to provide in the reports the reality out there and also the
frustrations and what is not working.
If it is 24 to 28 days later to close the case then they do not leave
with a good impression of services provided.
Chairperson Chavez stated
this report is an improvement. Future
reports should provide 1) true statements 2) customer plans for measurement.
Councilmember Campos
inquired on the cases resolved does staff track what is repeating in what
neighborhoods?
Mr. Matthews stated each
vehicle abatement officer knows their area and know the vehicles they have
marked previously. However, staff knows
once a person is educated about the 72 hours limit they move the vehicles at
various times to various places.
Councilmember Campos asked
if the SNI issues placed in the report are reported since they are part of Top
Ten?
Mr. Matthews stated it is a
pro-active service in addition to the regular service the residents would
receive.
Councilmember Campos asked
if staff had the numbers by district?
Mr. Hannon stated they do
not have it by district but by SNI areas.
Councilmember Campos
requested the SNI numbers to be provided.
Councilmember Campos asked
if staff is working together with the streetsweeping team? The vehicles not being moved creates
streetsweeping problems.
Mr. Hannon stated we need to
look at other ways to deliver vehicle abatement services. We need to start partnering with other
departments. We will be looking to
partner with the Department of Transportation in any way we can with the
streetsweeping.
Chairperson Chavez requested
as you bring this report back as part of budget and reporting out we really
should be consistant and use the number of days in a week. Have vehicle abatement return after working
with DOT and the neighborhood associations and look at how are we going to
respond to a 20% increase knowing we are not going to have more resources. At some level we do have to put a flag in
the ground and beyond this point we are not going to move and here are all the
things we are going to do to get us to the point. We are responding in “X” amount of days under these terms and
conditions. The emphasis is on working
with the neighborhood associations and how we do a better job with coordinating
vehicle abatements work with parking compliance. The reality is we have parking compliance, vehicle abatement and
the Police Department. I would respond
to the issues raised today and come back to the Committee prior to budget:
-
What
does our stake in the ground need to be?
-
What
role should the council offices be involved?
-
How
the neighborhood associations, vehicle abatement and the Police Department need
to be a partner in that direction.
-
Attach
the money component with the information provided.
-
Survey
of surrounding sister cities in the county on their timeline for response and
their population size. Include cities
of similar size.
Upon motion of Councilmember Yeager, seconded by Councilmember
Chirco, the Committee accepted the Community Preservation Ordinance Update and
return to the Committee prior to budget addressing:
·
What does our stake in the ground need to be.
·
What role should the council offices be involved.
·
How the neighborhood associations, vehicle abatement and the Police
Department need to be a partner in that direction
·
Attach the money component with the information provided
·
Survey of surrounding sister cities in the county on their timeline for
response and their population size.
Include cities of similar size.
b.
Review Standards for Street Cleanliness (Department of Transportation,
Planning, Building and Code Enforcement)
Jim Helmer, Director of Department of Transportation
(DOT) introduced Carl Mosher, Director of Environmental Services and Kevin
O’Connor, Deputy Director DOT.
Kevin O’Connor reviewed with the Committee the
program overview, current program performance, program performance standards,
program changes and improvements, and related issues and functions.
Councilmember Yeager asked if they have a flyer for
residents to use and place on parked cars reminding residents to move their
cars for the street sweeper?
Mr. O’Connor stated they do have a flyer that is
provided to residents. It is typically
distributed through any community meeting that they attend or when they receive
a complaint on a parked car or effectiveness of the sweeping.
Councilmember Yeager suggested that if they send the
flyer via the neighborhood centers and associations to make it available for
them to send out on their email list.
Chairperson Chavez asked what is the goal of street
cleanliness and customer satisfaction?
Mr. O’Connor stated we would want to achieve in the
90% range but realistically through the survey we are about 75% of our
customers are satisfied with the program.
In addressing the streets where the parking impact is the highest and we
cannot get to the curb to sweep it that would bring the customer satisfaction
up significantly.
Chairperson Chavez stated it is hard to know what is
the plan getting to happy. I am not so
concerned about the percentages as I am about a program that gets the job
done. We may want to do something more
customized for the difficult neighborhoods.
Mr. O’Connor added the plan is to focus on the 15%
that is not clean, where there is high parking impacts by installing parking
prohibitions.
Councilmember Campos asked if the streets have been
identified that fall in this 15% and if so are neighborhood associations
attached to these streets within the neighborhood?
Mr. O’Connor stated they have been identified and
have been working with many of neighborhoods but not all 15%. We have established the need for the signs
and received approval from the community for installing the signs. We have not installed them. All the SNI areas have being reviewed and
outside other complaint areas where there is an impact. We have not completed the areas outside of
SNI.
Chairperson Chavez asked when we are looking at this
chart is there a goal here?
Mr. O’Connor added the idea was to demonstrate that
other cities have recognized that parking prohibitions and restrictions is a
way to obtain effective cleaning. Our
goal is to install about 290 miles of new signs within the next five years.
Chairperson Chavez stated there are a few items of
concern:
- collisions cleanups leave debris from the accident
- a lot of glass in the curbs and gutters
- how is the street sweeping getting in the
newsletters in languages and correct
Mr. Helmer agreed and stated certain areas can be
targeted through the neighborhood newsletters and at strategic times. He also stated the transportation CSA is
working with other CSA’s on certain targeted issues and street sweeping and
vehicle abatement is an area where we have a team looking at to address many of
those same questions address in the vehicle abatement presentation. The towing agencies have the responsibility
to cleanup. Some of the collisions
happen and do not get reported. The
public on a regular basis calls in debris reports.
·
collisions cleanups leave debris from the accident
·
a lot of glass in the curbs and gutters
·
how is the street sweeping getting in the newsletters in languages and
correct
·
flyer distribution by the community on street sweeping calendars
c. Review Strategies and Effects of the Neighborhood Investment
Task Force and Grant Processes for Neighborhood Organization (Parks, Recreation
and Neighborhood Services)
Cynthia
Bojorquez introduced Joe Cardinalli and Cora Velasco of Parks, Recreation and
Neighborhood Services (PRNS).
Joe
Cardinalli narrated the PowerPoint presentation. He stated the website and coordination with the call center is
very effective. Future challenges were
reviewed.
Councilmember
Chirco stated the insurance information for the volunteer program is good
information to have. We need to keep
meeting with Cal Trans. How do you
outreach to non-SNI area?
Mr.
Cardinalli stated staff has laid out a workplan and more marketing of the
volunteer program will be involved. Our
main goal was getting the process in place.
Councilmember
Campos asked if the Cal Trans meeting is being coordinated with other
departments?
Mr.
Cardinalli stated staff is working with DOT and others currently on the
committee.
Sara
Hensley added the City has taken a very compressive approach in addressing the
trash issues and promotes the idea of taking pride and cleaning up the City and
the outlying areas.
Ms.
Bojorquez asked what information would the Committee be interested in having
reported. What type of performance
measure would you like to see? She
suggested livability issues or numbers of volunteers?
Chairperson
Chavez stated how does what you do create a high quality of life? If we take the population that lives, works
and plays in San Jose is that reflective of the work that is happening
citywide. You should include the
railroads in your update
Jill
Cody added we are developing a relationship with the Service Learning Program
at San Jose State. They will be doing a
presentation to the PRNS Senior Staff in the near future.
Chairperson
Chavez stated the report on the Service Learning and Internship Programs should
be reported separately. Committee and
staff discussed various ideas on neighborhood pride and cleanup utilizing the
volunteer program.
Chairperson Chavez added she does not want staff to recreate. If we are already taking “