Fearing proposed budget cuts would hurt too many neighborhood services, San Jose City Council members have submitted their suggestions for balancing the city's $745 million budget, including ways to keep providing services to community centers, libraries and public safety.
The council needs to find ways to offset a $58 million gap for the fiscal year that starts on July 1. For the fourth consecutive year, the budget reflects cuts in city services.
One cost-cutting proposal involves leasing some of the city's neighborhood facilities to outside nonprofit and for-profit organizations. City officials say that by phasing out older facilities and avoiding duplicating services in neighborhoods, they can be more cost-effective.
"We want to address gaps in services," said Joan Carrico, deputy director of San Jose's parks, recreation and neighborhood services department. "Some neighborhoods have an aging population, and some have younger people. We want to offer older adult services where there is a concentration of seniors. We look at the demographics."
There are 26 centers slated to get new tenants in the first year of the city's "re-use" strategy. In Almaden Valley, The Spot Youth Center and the Hoffman/Via Monte Neighborhood Center--which is in the design phase now--are included in that list.
"At $58.1 million, the deficit is huge," District 10 Councilwoman Nancy Pyle said. "If the city could find ways of not cutting back services and programs, they should be explored."
Those facilities that could be affected in central San Jose include the Hamann Park, Bramhall Park and River Glen Park neighborhood centers, which are small park buildings, and the Sherman Oaks Community Center, which provides more comprehensive neighborhood programs.
Young Shim heads up one of the programs that run out of Sherman Oaks. As the executive director for Korean-American Community Services, she provides educational and vocational services to recent immigrants.
"When you move to a new area, the language and culture are very hard," she said. "We are dedicated to improve the quality of life."
The news of the proposed budget cuts have hit Shim hard, leaving her unsure of what to do. Leasing out space would cost money that her organization doesn't have.
"It's bad news," she said. "We have the same situation. Where is the money? We are facing the same problem."
Those facilities that don't get leased out could be closed. Carrico said residents shouldn't expect new tenants to move in until next spring. The city will ask for community feedback as to what neighbors would like to see in these facilities.
Local branch libraries are also likely to be affected. The preliminary recommendation is to keep the city's libraries open on Sundays and close them on Mondays, yielding an expected $812,000 in annual savings. But Pyle's top priority is to see libraries keep their current schedule--closed on Sundays and open on Mondays, but with shorter hours.
"This is especially needed since local high school libraries have been discontinued," Pyle said. "After-school programs are often housed at libraries, and homework is usually assigned on Mondays."
Residents in Willow Glen may have to give up some firefighting equipment if the budget proposals go through. Fire Station 6 on Cherry Avenue may lose one hose wagon, a fire truck with larger diameter hose, which would also reduce the station's staff from five firefighters to four. The hose wagon at Fire Station No. 6 is the last such truck remaining in service, but according to Dave Schoonover, a deputy chief of the department, all current fire trucks have similar large hoses.
Fire Station No. 6 also has a fire engine and an air unit, a support vehicle with an air compressor built into it that is shared with other stations.
District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager is seeking a way to keep the equipment at Station 6.
"I consider this a reduction in service and believe the amount of activity in Willow Glen warrants two pieces of equipment," Yeager said.
The city may also eliminate neighborhood watch programs, which comes as unfortunate news to Jeff Rogers, a former officer of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association. Rogers said police officers often tell him and his neighbors that participation in the neighborhood watch programs is one of the best ways they have of protecting each other.
"If the city is not going to fund it any longer, it seems to me not quite the right priority," Rogers said. "If this is the best tool for neighbors to prevent and fight crime, we ought to keep it around."
The city blames its budget woes partly on a lackluster local economy that has been slow to recover from the national recession. Expenses have been outpacing revenues for four years now, though officials are seeing a revenue increase in sales tax and hotel bookings. Industry watchers agree that the local economy is poised to rebound.
Daniel Fenton, CEO of the San Jose Convention & Visitors Bureau, sees a slight but perceptible move upward in visitors' spending and hotel bookings this year.
"The good news is that we've hit bottom, but we're moving in the right direction," Fenton said. Four years ago, Fenton said, area hotels would easily be at 80-percent occupancy. During the last few years, though, that rate has dropped to 40 percent, but has dropped to half that occupancy. Now, according to Fenton, bookings are inching upward by 5 percent a year.
Despite the small bit of good news on the horizon, city officials are not optimistic about next year's budget, which has projections indicating a gap of $60 million.
"There are only more dark clouds," Yeager said.
The city has a public hearing on the budget on June 13 at 7 p.m. and the council is expected to vote on the budget June 14. |
