Letters from the Public - 2 of 2 — San Jose City Council, February 14, 2023

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FW: San Jose Budget: Please fully fund VISION ZERO for safer streets City Clerk <[email protected]>
Tue 2/14/2023 7:34 AM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: Moria Merriweather
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 12:39 AM
To: Doan, Bien <[email protected]>
Cc: City Clerk <[email protected]>; Mahan, Ma <Ma[email protected]>; Jimenez, Sergio <[email protected]>; Foley, Pam <[email protected]>; Cohen, David <[email protected]>; Torres, Omar <[email protected]>; Davis, Dev <[email protected]>; Orz, Peter <Peter.Or[email protected]>; Batra, Arjun <[email protected]>; Kamei, Rosemary <[email protected]>; Candelas, Domingo <[email protected]>; [email protected]; shiloh ; sandhya laddha <sandhya >
Subject: San Jose Budget: Please fully fund VISION ZERO for safer streets

Dear Council Member Doan,

I live on Senter Road, near Tully Road, and I ride a bike. This means I ride a bike on some of the most dangerous streets in San Jose.

I want to keep riding my bike, because it contributes to my physical health, mental health, and social health. I bike because it connects me socially, emoonally and kinesthecally to the places and people in my neighborhood.

Fully implemenng the Vision Zero plan is an essenal step toward making San Jose a safer place to travel for all of us, and especially for bicycles and pedestrians.

Please priorize funding to fully implement the Vision Zero plan as quickly as possible.

I support the recommendaons of the Mayor’s Transion Commiee on Community Safety for funding Vision Zero, for the bike plan, for increased staﬃng for DOT, and for addional pedestrian safety measures.

I want desperately to bike on safer streets. While I sve to ride as safely as I can, I know that what I can do to stay safe is small compared to the improvements in safety that our community can provide to all bicyclists by modifying the streets to protect bicyclists and pedestrians.

Thank you for your aenon to safer streets and a more bikeable, walkable, and socially connected community.

Moria Merriwather

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FW: Agenda Item 1
City Clerk <[email protected]>
Tue 2/14/2023 8:12 AM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: Kat Adamson >
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 8:00 AM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Agenda Item 1

Hello,
My name is Kat and I am from Students Against Mass Incarceraon at SJSU. I'd like to urge City Council to not increase police staﬃng as this method has not been successful in reducing crime, homelessness, or mental health issues in the community. Instead, we should be focusing on non-police soluons like further funding for the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST). This team has been successful in ensuring that individuals requiring care that they will not receive in jail get it and are handled in a safe and producve manner. They need funding for a second ﬁeld team and an addional call center to make sure that there is enough personnel to respond to crises in real-me instead of having a police response that would be ineﬀecve and unsafe for those experiencing crises.

This ensures that residents are dealt with in a safe and secure manner by personnel trained for the task, not by police oﬃcers who may be reacng negavely in an emoonally charged situaon that they are untrained and unprepared for. Stascs show that 50% of individuals killed by SJ PD in 2013-2017 were struggling with mental illness, which shows that this is an epidemic that the police department is not responding to appropriately. Again, I urge City Council to invest in TRUST instead of increasing police staﬃng to end senseless violence against individuals with mental illnesses in the community.

Thank you,

Kat Adamson

This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. given a local infraction by SJPD than white adults. From 2015-2020, San José has had the highest number of fatal encounters with police in the Bay Area, 15 of 19 of whom were people of color. Nearly half of those killed by police sufferered from mental illness or were experiencing a mental health crisis. No police have been prosecuted for any of these deaths." San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 2,2020.

The behavior of the SJPD has not changed. According to the most recent Sacred Heart report card on housing, immigration and economic justice - the San Jose City Council scored an "F" when it comes to decisions on policing.

San Jose City Council Report Cards — Sacred Heart
Community Service
See how we rate the Mayor and City Council on the issues that are important to Sacred Heart and its members.

b. The RiPs report included dozens of actionable recommendations, including that the City of San Jose to chip in for a second field team in SJ for the Trusted Responder Urgent Support Team (TRUST).

"RiPS is proposing that the City of San José invest in and develop new tools and systems to respond to specfic circumstances to create better outcomes for community members and better utilize police resources. Expanding and developing mobile community response teams for individuals experiencing mental health crises, addiction, homelessness or domestic abuse may be more effective at linking individuals to the services they need, may be more equitable by ensuring that professionals deeply trained in working with specic populations are giving appropriate responses, and may be more cost effcient than sending law enforcement personnel." [Rips Report page 5.]

This way is better for all: better for police, better for communities.

Do not sweep aside the thoughtful work put into the RiPs report. Evidence shows less "police on citizen violence" happens when law enforcement is not involved in mental health crises and traffic stops. We are fortunate to live in a place where a viable alternative is rolling out. The city of San Jose needs to robustly embrace alternative [read FUND alternatives], not just push the failing status quo.

Fund alternatives not just more police.

Deborah St. Julien
South San Jose for 37 years, recently redistricted into District2, Showing Up For Racial Justice @Sacred Heart,
Co-president of the board of my church - Urban Sanctuary, San Jose.

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FW: Support for Community Safety Mayoral Transition Committee Recommendations City Clerk <[email protected]>
Tue 2/14/2023 9:12 AM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: Jonathan Schuppert >
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 9:06 AM
To: Torres, Omar <[email protected]>
Cc: City Clerk <[email protected]>; Mahan, Ma <Ma[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: Support for Community Safety Mayoral Transion Commiee Recommendaons

Dear Councilmember Torres,
I am a resident of San Jose's Northside neighborhood and I choose to walk and ride a bike (my own and the bike share system) for recreaon, commung, and errands. On countless occasions I have been nearly hit by people driving who are not paying aenon.

I personally know people who have been hit, including one of my best friends who was hit while riding along San Carlos Street. The driver sped oﬀ, leaving her badly injured and alive today because of the helmet I previously gave her for her birthday.

The issues seem to have goen worse since the start of the pandemic and are not geng any beer. I have seen too many arcles about people who have been killed or seriously injured on our streets and we must do something.

I support the recommendaons from the Mayor’s Transion Commiee on Community Safety to:

Fully fund the Vision Zero Acon Plan and deliver projects as quick as possible Fund new Department of Transportaon staﬀ to keep these projects moving and seeking grants to get more money for future projects and programs
Fund the Bike Plan
Adopt a pedestrian safety improvement program

Thank you for your dedicaon to the City of San Jose and the people who live and work here. Please priorize the safety of people, especially those most vulnerable on our streets.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Schuppert

2/14/23
Good morning everyone,
My name is Esperanza and I am currently a full-time student at San José State University and major in Chicano and Chicana Studies. I also currently work as a Behavioral Specialist at Center for Social Dynamics (CSD) which is a mental health service that helps provide life-changing services to children and adults with developmental delays, including autism. I learned from my field of work that it is important to provide mental health services in order to see children and adults safely receive the care and health that they need in order to prosper in society. I firmly believe that The City of San José must increase the support of mental health and substance use treatments for the individuals who reside in San José, who may experience a crisis and do not want to heavily rely on calling 911. Marginalized communities have historically experienced and also expressed their fears of calling 911 due to the fear of law enforcement response who may not know the approaches of handling a delicate situation. It is important to emphasize the importance of providing mental health and substance use treatments in order for individuals to have a safe alternative to rely on the help they need.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

FW: Support the RTC!!
City Clerk <[email protected]>
Tue 2/14/2023 11:00 AM
To:Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: E A < >
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 10:54 AM
To: The Oﬃce of Mayor Ma Mahan <[email protected]>; Kamei, Rosemary <[email protected]>; Jimenez, Sergio <[email protected]>; Torres, Omar <[email protected]>; Cohen, David <[email protected]>; Orz, Peter <Peter.Or[email protected]>; City Clerk <[email protected]>; Davis, Dev <[email protected]>; Doan, Bien <[email protected]>; Foley, Pam <[email protected]>; District8 <[email protected]>; District 10 <[email protected]>
Subject: Support the RTC!!

Dear Mayor and Council Members:

My name is Elizabeth and I live in D3 & I am a community leader a part of SHHAC.

Thanks so much to the Transional Priority Seng Commiee for recommending the Right to Counsel. We believe it will be a game changer for our community in prevenng the traumas of evicon, displacement, and homelessness that have systemacally burdened the Black, Lanx, and Nave communies that are low-income. Though this policy will be one that beneﬁts everyone. Moreover, it will even the playing ﬁeld for tenants. Would any one of us consider appearing in court without a lawyer? It is about doing what's fair.

Furthermore, it will create tremendous cost savings for our community and aid in bringing a sense of stability in our region.

I encourage you all to support the RTC in San Jose.

Thank You

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Public Comment for Today's Council Session
Darcie Green < >
Tue 2/14/2023 11:04 AM
To:City Clerk <[email protected]>
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Hello,
Please see my public comment for today's meeting record.

Thank you

February 14, 2023

Members of the San Jose City Council
[email protected]

We know what keeps us safe: living in communities where people of every culture and background have fair wages, great schools, and affordable healthcare, where we address problems with proven solutions like social support and community care. As was just beautifully stated by Congresswoman Summer Lee, Public safety doesn’t begin with policing — it begins with investments in the community. Public safety is about a living wage, after school programs and other violence interrupters — it’s about empowering neighbors to care for each other and nurturing a community where everyone feels at home, regardless of their age, occupation, income or ethnicity. Unless our budget diverts funds to services and solutions that advances that vision, we’re not having a serious conversation about reducing crime.

The Transition Committee has public safety on its agenda, but the list of priorities does not include raising living wages, preventing gentrification and displacement, providing lasting dignity and respect for all members of our community. We all want to eradicate violence from our city — but what about the economic violence, police violence and institutionalized neglect that our communities have been subject to? Let’s use our city budget to rid our community of ALL violence.

There is nothing revolutionary about a public safety strategy that calls for expansion of police budget and power as the metric of success and there is no common sense in fighting to preserve a system that continually fails to produce true safety and justice in our city. Fully funding Vision Zero, self-enforcing streets, analyzing calls for service and mental health partnerships are good and important priorities but “more police” is not an adequate outcome or metric of success. It is not even an adequate measurement of safety.

There is a better way. In fact, we only need to look to the pandemic to see that there are millions of ways WE, in community, keep each other safe when systems fall short. We will not let up until ALL residents of this city are truly safe, secure and sustained and until our safety is measured by the quality of our social conditions and strength of our relationships rather than the number of police officers on our streets. This is what justice looks like. We cannot allow this Mayor or anyone to spin a narrative that encourages us to dehumanize each other or cement the dehumanization of our neighbors into our city budget or our city policies.

Last year, the City of San Jose’s Reimagining Public Safety Advisory Board took time and care to involve a broad, diverse set of community stakeholders and impacted people to thoughtfully and carefully develop 50 proposals spanning three areas: police reform, alternatives responses and improving social conditions. We didn’t do this in secret. We didn’t hide our membership roster. We didn’t close our meetings to the public and we didn’t bulldoze through it in a three meeting arch. After being asked by the city to participate in this public service and after presenting the 50 recommendations to the Council, we heard nothing. No words. No actions. Little follow through. And the budget allocation meant for reimagining public safety was given to the police department for existing tools. Not a dollar was spent on reimagining. Fortunately, you have an opportunity in this next budget to make it right.

I ask you to please commit to using the existing city sponsored and community led reimagining public safety recommendations as your starting point to truly revolutionize the way we keep our communities safe. The lives of our youth, our elders and families are on the line — we cannot afford to waste more time or resources on solutions that we know make us less safe. Please give us a budget that puts people first.

Sincerely,

Darcie Green
Resident, District 5
Community Health Advocate
Member, City of San Jose Reimagining Public Safety Advisory Board

San Jose City CouncilFebruary 14, 2023

San Jose City Council
February 14, 2023