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August 25, 2023
San José City Council
San José City Hall
200 E. Santa Clara St.
San José, CA 95113
Sent via electronic mail
Re: Proposed revisions to remove the nonprofit exemption to the Revolving Door Ordinance -- OPPOSED
Dear Mayor Mahan and Members of the City Council:
I write to you on behalf of the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits (SVCN), an alliance of community-based organizations working to support thriving and equitable communities in Santa Clara County.
The below nonprofit signatories write with great concern about the proposal to remove the nonprofit exemption to the Revolving Door Ordinance.
Nonprofits are great and steadfast partners of the City; there are myriad examples of nonprofits being part of the fabric of City programs and services.
Nonprofits currently work day-to-day with City staff to conduct outreach to our unhoused neighbors and to support youth in our community who are at risk of gang involvement. Nonprofit and City staff labored shoulder to shoulder to respond to the pandemic—providing food, childcare, testing and vaccines, and protecting our unhoused and other vulnerable community members from COVID.
Nonprofit leaders worked for a year (in a volunteer capacity) on the Recovery Task Force, together with City staff and community members with relevant lived experiences, to envision a future where our community experiences an equitable recovery from the consequences of the pandemic.
Most recently the City acknowledged the value of nonprofit partnership through the development of a nonprofit contractor bench, an opportunity that will
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leverage the trust communities have in the nonprofits that serve them to bridge the gap between the community and the city to support the City’s commitment to deep civic engagement.
Many of the City’s key programs, like the Office of Racial Equity, exist in large part because of nonprofit advocacy for their existence.
The purpose behind the Revolving Door Ordinance is to prevent City employees who have separated from the City to use their knowledge from or relationships within the City to profit from or get unfair advantage with the City. This rationale is inapposite when applied to employees who transition to nonprofit employment. By definition, nonprofits are guided by their missions for the public benefit, rather than for a profit. To receive 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS, a nonprofit must serve with the purpose of, “... lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.”(Exempt Purposes - Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)).
Further, nonprofit professionals, acting in the public interest, who have knowledge of City programs, priorities, and needs, are an asset to the City, not a threat. Restricting their ability to work on City-related projects and advocate for the community’s interests would impede their nonprofit missions. In many cases, it would also stop them from working in partnership with the City toward City goals (like affordable housing organizations) or even delivering City services (like youth violence intervention and prevention organizations).
Lastly, nonprofits already face significant challenges in hiring and retaining staff.
Removing the nonprofit exemption would both make it harder for nonprofits to recruit individuals motivated by service in the public good as well as make it harder for the City to have partners in its goals and objectives.
For all these reasons, rather than remove the limited exemption of nonprofits from the revolving door ordinance, City Council should extend the exemption to all nonprofits rather than only nonprofits with formal relationships with the City.
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We support the specific recommendation of the May 19, 2023 memorandum by Councilmembers Jimenez and Cohen which calls for the exemption to be extended to all nonprofits, including those that may not have formal relationships or contracts with the city.
Please contact [email protected] with any questions. We appreciate your consideration of our perspective.
Sincerely,
Vaughn Villaverde
AACI
Milan R. Balinton
African American Community Service
Agency
Almaz Negash
African Diaspora Network
Michelle Humke
Almaden Valley Counseling Service
Steve Eckert
Alum Rock Counseling Center
Maritza Maldonado
Amigos de Guadalupe Center for
Justice and Empowerment
Richard Konda
Asian Law Alliance
Dr. Anne Ferguson
Bay Area Older Adults
Elisa Koff-Ginsborg
Behavioral Health Contractors’
Association
Josh Selo
Bill Wilson Center
Zahra Biloo
CAIR San Francisco Bay Area
Gregory Kepferle
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara
County
Alicia Orozco
Chicana Latina Foundation
Trami Cron
Chopsticks Alley Art
Marsha Hovey
Collaborating Agencies’ Disaster
Relief Effort (CADRE)
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Dolores Alvarado
Community Health Partnership
Erin O’Brien
Community Solutions
Chad Johnston
CreaTV San José
Jennifer Loving
Destination: Home
Shawn Gerth
Educare California at Silicon Valley
Beth Leary
Family Supportive Housing, Inc.
Michael Fox
Goodwill of Silicon Valley
Veronica Goei
Grail Family Services
Jason Su
Guadalupe River Park Conservancy
Maria Angelica Nicolacoudis
Hearts & Minds Activity Center
Sonya M. Tetnowski
Indian Health Center of Santa Clara
Valley
Quyen Vuong
International Children Assistance
Network (ICAN)
Susan Frazer
Jewish Family Services of Silicon
Valley
Robert Escobar
Jose Valdes Math Foundation
Rose Mukhar
Justice At Last
James Santucci
Kara
Deb Kramer
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful
Gabriela Chavez-Lopez
Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley
Darcie Green
Latinas Contra Cancer
Socorro Montaño
Latinos United for a New America
(LUNA)
Alison Brunner
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Dr. Angelica Cortez
LEAD Filipino
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David P. Hott & Gisela Bushey
Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen
Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez
MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y
Cultura Latin
Bill Lee
Martha’s Kitchen
Lana Nguyen
Mekong Community Center
Usha Srinivasan
Mosaic America
Phillip Rodriguez
New Hope For Youth
Colsaria Henderson
Next Door Solutions to Domestic
Violence
Mary Gloner
Nonprofit Executive
Aisha Benson
Nonprofit Finance Fund
Meredith Curry Nuñez
Northern California College Promise
Coalition
Grace Li
On Lok
Eva M. Terrazas
Pacific Clinics
Maria Daane
Parents Helping Parents
Heather Cleary
Peninsula Family Service
Tonya Suker
Playful People Productions
Nathan Svoboda
Project MORE
Carole Conn
Project Sentinel
Kathy Cordova
Recovery Café San Jose
Poncho Guevara
Sacred Heart Community Service
Dorsey Moore
San Jose Conservation Corps
James P. Reber
San Jose Parks Foundation
Wisa Uemura
San Jose Taiko
Belinda Lowe-Schmahl
Schmahl Science Workshops
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Jessica Paz-Cedillos
School of Arts and Culture @ MHP
Tracy Weatherby
Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
Leticia Galyean
Seneca Family of Agencies
Huy Tran
Services, Immigrant Rights, and
Education Network (SIREN)
Gina Dalma
Silicon Valley Community
Foundation
Lisa Andrew
Silicon Valley Education Foundation
Kyra Kazantzis
Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits
Victor Vasquez
SOMOS Mayfair
Mimi Nguyen
Step Forward Foundation
Regina Celestin Williams
SV@Home
Lucianne F. Latu
Taulama for Tongans
Lisa Pedersen
The Art of Yoga Project
Michele Lew
The Health Trust
Yvonne Maxwell
Ujima Adult and Family Services
Marlo Botello-Aepli
UnChained
Kelly Batson
United Way Bay Area
Emily Schwing
Veggielution
Philip Nguyen
Vietnamese American Roundtable
Sujatha Venkatraman
West Valley Community Service
Bob Brownstein
Working Partnerships USA
Jennifer Masuda
Yu-Ai Kai Japantown Senior Center