COUNCIL:03/15/22ITEM: 3.3
TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM:Councilmember Raul Peralez
SUBJECT:SEE BELOW DATE: March15, 2022
____________________________________________________________Approved by: Date: 3/14/2022____________________________________________________________SUBJECT: Approval of the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Mayor’s March Budget Message
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the Mayor’s March Budget Message along with the memo from CouncilmembersArenas, Esparza and Carrasco and direct the City Manager to include the following:1. Provide an MBA on the items listed in my March 4th Transportation &Environment Committee (T&E) memo regarding the Vision Zero Status Report 1 2. Include an updated cost estimate for a City Sanctioned Encampment3. Prepare an MBA regarding a strategy for our public safety employees and firstresponders to access mental health resources.4. Identify funding to restore the San Jose Fire over-time budget of $660,000 toallow all fire stations to be fully staffed during declared “state of emergency” andfire season.
BACKGROUND
Thank you to the Mayor and my colleagues for looking at the budget process to tacklesome of the most pressing issues within our city. As our city looks to emerge out of thepandemic we need to continue to look for ways to solve some of our most critical issues.
Vision ZeroI appreciate the Mayor’s message addressing pedestrian and traffic safety. As Chair of theVision Zero Task Force, I am too familiar with the names of traffic victims that are readoff when convening our task force meetings. Last year was one of the deadliest years inSan Jose’s history of traffic fatalities and 2022 is trending at an even higher rate. 1 https://sanjose.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=10577139&GUID=A42B6B86-70CB-420D-9CBA-1F1338EB1AE7
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Therefore, at the most recent T&E Committee on March 7, my office issued a memowith recommendations to explore in this budget cycle (see footnote 1). The memocontemplates budgetary recommendations related to increased resources to evaluate anddeploy safety enhancements, especially in our priority safety corridors (PSCs). Therecommendations have already been accepted by my colleagues at committee andconsidering the urgency of this issue, it would make sense to include them as part of ourbudget process as intended.
Sanctioned EncampmentDuring the pandemic we saw our unhoused community continually encamp in our publicparks and spaces, most notably, in our Guadalupe River Conservancy. While the Mayoraddresses housing alternatives in the March budget message, many solutions will stilltake a considerable amount of time, while our neighborhoods are urging for moreimmediate solutions. Over the years, I have asked our city to implement a sanctionedencampment pilot, and I continue to ask my colleagues to take this into considerationagain.
With a significant shortage of shelter beds and over 5,000 San José residents continuallyseeking refuge in public spaces, sanctioned encampments can provide basic livingconditions that will also allow access to better case management. Additionally, as webegin to clear the encampments under the flight path as directed by Federal AviationAuthority (FAA), a sanctioned encampment would help alleviate the strain of pop upencampments in nearby residential neighborhoods, as we are currently seeing those whohave already been moving from the Guadalupe River Park area to other nearby parks,such as St. James, Watson and Roosevelt Park.
Using lessons and observations learned from both the major encampments at the Junglein 2014 and recently near Columbus Park, we learned that while there were manynegative impacts on having an encampment of such size, one unintended but key benefitis the centralization of our unhoused population allows for more efficient deployment ofhuman services. A more controlled sanctioned encampment can provide a similaropportunity that would allow for our agencies to provide services, case management andhopefully housing placement in a more appropriate and centralized location.
Public SafetyIt is no secret that this pandemic has taken its toll on us all. Our first responders have hadto face the pandemic, all while battling perennial wildfires, maintaining public safetyduring social unrest, and responding to COVID emergency calls. According to the KaiserFamily Foundation, statistics show that “when compared to non-essential workers,essential workers are likely to report symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder (42% vs30%), starting or increasing substance use (25% vs. 11%), and suicidal (22% vs. 8%)thoughts during the pandemic.”In 2019, our Councilprioritized mental health even 2 2
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/ Page3
further by adopting my proposed suicide prevention policy. My office further doubleddown when proposing our Community Violence Prevention Initiative that called forimproved wellness programs for our employees, and currently being implementedthrough the Powered by People enterprise priority that is partnering with theNationalCouncil for Mental Wellbeing. And as we begin to shiftto a COVID-19 endemic, it isimportant that we do not forget the mental health of our public safety employees and firstresponders, serving in one of the most thinly staffed city halls of a major American city.Our communities depend on them for critical life saving services. Therefore, it isimperative we continue to prioritize strategies to bolster their wellness in body, mind andspirit, so we can call upon them to do their best when serving our community.
As we look to provide a safety net for our community, we know that California is subjectto beautiful weather. However, a change of weather can also turn its course into tragedy.We recently experienced this with a major wildfire that impeded on our East Hills andreached across neighboring cities, such as Milpitas and Fremont. Our San José FireDepartment should be able to adjust their personnel resources as needed. Therefore, I askthat we include restoring the San José Fire Department’s overtime budget, in order to beutilized in the wildfire season and during any declared “State of Emergency” that willrequire a shift in personnel.