Even if allocated airport funds are restricted to airport property and cannot be redirected to the General Fund, they should be used responsibly. Instead of building a barrier, the airport should use these funds to restripe Ewert Road and install a two-way shared use path to safely separate cyclists and staff vehicles.
Obligations of Resolution No. 65037 and TDA Article 3
The proposed closure directly violates the spirit and terms of the city’s historical funding commitments. In 1993, the San José City Council passed Resolution No. 65037, approving Transportation Development Act Article 3 (TDA3) Funding specifically to design and construct the "San José International Airport Bike Path" along this northern perimeter.
By accepting these funds, the City agreed to abide by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Resolution No. 875, which created policies including that "a jurisdiction agrees to maintain the facility." This is similar to the Council adopted agreement made for the current round of TDA3 funding at the June 2, 2026 City Council meeting: MTC requires the City Council to adopt a resolution, which it did 11 0, making certain findings such as that "the City agrees to maintain, or provide for the maintenance of, the project(s) and facilities... for the benefit of and use by the public". Maintenance of these facilities is key to creating a walkable and bikeable city that furthers San Jose General Plan goals and policies as well as Vision Zero goals. Erecting a fence to permanently block cyclists is a bad faith breach of the covenant the Council made when accepting this TDA3 grant.
Below is a map from 1997 showing the existing bicycle facilities near the airport:
This map shows Ewert Road as an existing bicycle facility, per the TDA Article 3 grant construction. This route is consistently shown as a bicycle route through various plans and reports through to the 2020's.
Contradicting the City Manager and Mayor's Budget Priorities This unnecessary expenditure directly defies the City Manager’s directive regarding our current fiscal crisis:
"Fully resolving the ongoing General Fund shortfall in a fiscally responsible manner with minimal community or employee impacts."
Fencing off Ewert Road does the exact opposite: it inflicts a direct, negative impact on community mobility while wasting resources. If any flexible city funds are being utilized for this project, they should be redirected to the core priorities outlined in the Mayor’s March Budget Message: Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness, Cleaning Up Our Neighborhoods, Increasing Community Safety, Growing Our Economy, and Building More Housing.
Direct Violations of the San José General Plan & Vision Zero Ewert Road serves as the only safe, direct detour for commuters and cyclists when the Guadalupe River Trail's US-101 underpass experiences regular winter flooding. Permanently closing it directly undermines several General Plan Goals and Policies:
Goal TR-1 & TR-2: Mandates the City "complete and maintain a multimodal transportation system that gives priority to the mobility needs of bicyclists" and make cycling "convenient, comfortable, and safe." Closing this route makes commuting less convenient and less safe.
Policy TR-9.3: Commits to enhancing the travel experience to "encourage mode shift." Forcing cyclists onto high stress, dangerous alternative routes achieves the opposite.
Policy TN-2.3: Dictates that the City "maintain necessary infrastructure to facilitate the use of trails as transportation." Because Ewert Road acts as the primary winter flooding bypass, it is necessary trail infrastructure.
Policy TN-3.3: Requests the City "provide safe and secure routes for trails and to minimize at grade intersections with roadways." The Ewert detour requires only 2 intersections. The eastern alternative routes force cyclists through 7 or more dangerous intersections, drastically increasing collision risks.
And the 2025 Vision Zero Action Plan is organized around five Priority Action Areas, including 1) Prioritize Equity and Vulnerable Road Users, and 4) Engineer for Safety. Closing the road does not prioritize vulnerable road users since it may direct those users into unsafe corridors. Closing the road does not engineer for safety since the project is not trying to accomodate vulnerable road users through engineering solutions such as creating a shared use path.
These violations should be reason enough to direct the Airport to not use funds to close the roadway.
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Conclusion
Closing off a functional transportation corridor is a step backward for San José's climate, safety, and fiscal goals. I urge the City Council to direct the Director of Aviation, and any other staff, to halt any plans to fence, gate, or close Ewert Road, and instead redirect that funding to focus on solutions that preserve community access.
Thank you,
Greg Ripa
[External Email. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. Learn more] From: City Clerk
To: Agendadesk
Subject: FW: Allocate One Million UNRESTRICTED Dollars For Immigrant Services Date: Friday, June 5, 2026 7:32:28 AM
From: Deborah St. Julien <
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2026 11:46 PM
To: Campos, Pamela < The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan
< City Clerk <
Cc: District1 < District 10 < District9
< District8 < District7
< District 6 < District5
< District4 < District3
<
Subject: Allocate One Million UNRESTRICTED Dollars For Immigrant Services
Dear Mayor Mahan, Council Member Campos and All San Jose Council Members,
Dear Mayor, Council Member Campos and City Council Members, I am a member of SURJ SCC, a SCC Rapid Responder and a D2 resident. I live 1.4 miles from the ICE ISAP office at .
As a local Responder I have seen my immigrant neighbors, who show up for their routine surveillance check-ins and be detained without warning. I have seen my immigrant neighbors be shackled and handcuffed. I have seen traumatized family members left behind without warning.
In the midst of this brutality and tragedy, the work of the SCC RRN insures that people are aware of their rights. Responders accompany people to their asylum and immigration visits, and if someone is unexpectedly abducted, they or their family knows how to immediately contact the Rapid Response Network’s emergency legal services. This access to legal services increases the abducted person’s chance of release by 75%.
This vital, humane, necessary work.
While I am grateful that Mayor Mahan has included $1 million for immigration services in the budget proposal – the entire amount needs to be fully allocated immediately to community organizations on the ground doing the work. Half of the funds should NOT be placed in
reserve fund. If we found the funds, let’s put it toward community now. The need is present now.
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
San Jose has been greatly impacted by immigration enforcement. There have been times when ICE disappeared ten or more of our residents in a single day. Santa Clara County is experiencing three times more detentions than any other county in the Bay Area. San Jose is the most impacted city in our county, with detentions impacting residents from across 22 zip codes – a stark reminder that no community within the city is insulated. This funding is not just about legal support, it's about honoring our values and ensuring everyone can thrive.
These abductions disrupt families and communities.
These services are lifelines for families trying to deal with the terror of our current unbridled, essentially lawless system.
Again, if we found the funds, use them to provide this important service to our immigrant neighbors. Allocate the full $1M to immigration organizations now so that they have the capacity and time to build up to protect our most vulnerable neighbors Respectfully,
Deborah St Julien
D2 Resident
SCC Rapid Responder
SURJ SCC
[External Email. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. Learn more]
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
From: City Clerk
To: Agendadesk
Subject: FW: June 8th City Council Agenda Item 3.1
Date: Friday, June 5, 2026 7:33:04 AM
From: Jenna Kress <
Sent: Friday, June 5, 2026 3:10 AM
To: City Clerk <
Cc: The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan < District1 <
District2 < District3 < District4
< District5 < District 6
< District7 < District8
< District9 < District 10
<
Subject: June 8th City Council Agenda Item 3.1
Hi,
My name is Jenna Kress, I live in San Jose in District 6, am a social worker in the field of community safety, and I am a part of SURJ Santa Clara County. I care deeply about my community and want to live somewhere where the city is accountable to taking care of everyone, especially those most vulnerable. I care about equity, racial justice, and public safety. As a community member, I have volunteered as a part of the Rapid Response Network and also supporting unhoused residents during encampment sweeps.
I am asking that you allocate the full $1M to immigration organizations now so that they have the capacity and time to build up to protect our most vulnerable neighbors. I am also asking that you stop the towing programs, stop criminalizing our unhoused neighbors, and stop punishing people surviving the affordability crisis.
Warmly,
Jenna Kress
95125
June 4, 2026
RE: Public Hearing on the 2026-2027 Proposed Operating and Capital Budgets Animal Care and Services – Trap, Neuter, and Release and Spay and Neuter Services Expansion Dear Mayor, Vice-Mayor, Councilmembers and City Staff,
Thank you for your continued commitment to improving Animal Services and addressing the challenges facing both animals and residents in our community. The community is excited to see the return of Animal Care and Services to the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. There is strong hope that this transition will bring renewed focus, alignment, and improvement in service delivery.
As you consider the proposed budget, I respectfully request that the City prioritize the following key areas:
• Expansion of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) services to at least five days per week to meet demonstrated community demand
• Increased investment in prevention-focused programs, particularly spay/neuter and TNR, as the most effective long-term solution to reduce shelter intake and animal overpopulation • Transparency and accuracy in how unmet demand and service denials are tracked and reported • Clear accountability for spay/neuter and TNR outcomes within Animal Services, including measurable performance goals
• Direction to the City Manager to evaluate mid-year or future revenue availability and, if additional funds materialize, prioritize allocating those resources toward expanded TNR and spay/neuter capacity • Establishment of a dedicated Spay/Neuter and TNR Task Force to develop and guide a coordinated prevention strategy and improve program outcomes
While I appreciate the City's efforts to rebuild its TNR program, progress has been slow relative to the scale of the need. The demand for services significantly exceeds available capacity, creating visible impacts throughout the community. Residents seeking TNR appointments regularly begin lining up along Monterey Road as early as 5:00 a.m. during peak commute hours. This creates traffic and safety concerns while highlighting the severe shortage of available services. Community members would not be arriving hours before the shelter opens if adequate capacity existed to meet demand.
The ongoing shortage of TNR appointments also raises concerns about how demand is measured and reported.
Community members who arrive at the shelter with cats in traps for TNR services and are unable to secure appointments that day are in fact, turned away at the shelter doors, and instructed to release the animals unfixed.
Animal Services has made the decision not to classify these as "turned away" animals because they would not potentially occupy kennel space at the shelter. This approach focuses on shelter occupancy rather than community demand for services and does not reflect the spirit or intent of tracking unmet need. Residents seeking TNR services are requesting assistance from Animal Services, and when those services are unavailable, that unmet demand should be visible in the data used to inform policy and budget decisions.
The purpose of tracking animals that are turned away is to provide decision-makers with an accurate understanding of community needs, identify service gaps, and evaluate whether operational changes are successfully increasing access to services. Excluding cats turned away from TNR appointments understates the actual demand for spay/neuter services and limits the City's ability to accurately assess program capacity and effectiveness.
Accurate reporting of unmet demand is essential for evidence-based budgeting and policy decisions. If animals unable to access TNR services are not counted, the City risks underestimating the scale of the problem and concluding that current capacity is sufficient when the daily reality experienced by residents demonstrates otherwise. Residents lining up before dawn for a chance to access services demonstrates that demand continues to exceed available capacity. A more complete accounting of unmet demand would provide Council with a clearer picture of community needs and help guide future investments in prevention-focused programs.
Stray cats and kittens continue to represent one of the largest drivers of shelter intake. Prevention is the most effective way to reduce these numbers over time. To meaningfully address this issue, TNR operations should be expanded to at least five days per week, if not more, and supported by sufficient staffing, veterinary capacity, and community partnerships. Every kitten prevented through proactive spay/neuter efforts represents fewer animals entering the shelter system and fewer demands on already limited resources.
Given the scale and complexity of the community cat population challenge, a focused effort on prevention is necessary to achieve meaningful and sustainable progress. The City needs to establish a dedicated Spay/Neuter and TNR Task Force to develop a coordinated prevention strategy, identify barriers to access, evaluate program effectiveness, and recommend solutions to increase capacity and improve outcomes.
As future sales tax revenue results become available, I would request that Council direct the City Manager to evaluate those results and, if revenues are favorable, prioritize additional funding for TNR and spay/neuter services. Investments in prevention reduce future shelter intake, decrease operational pressures, improve animal welfare outcomes, and provide long-term cost savings to the City.
In addition, accountability for spay/neuter success should be clearly established within Animal Services.
Prevention should be treated as a core operational priority with clear expectations, accountability, and regular reporting on progress. Metrics should not simply track activities performed, but should measure outcomes such as spay/neuter volume, TNR capacity, access to services, reductions in community cat intake, and reductions in unmet demand over time. A specific individual or leadership position should be responsible for overseeing and driving the City's spay/neuter and TNR efforts, with measurable goals and performance metrics incorporated into departmental and management performance plans.
Finally, with the proposed elimination of the overnight shift, I ask for transparency as to how those resources will be reallocated. I encourage the City to identify opportunities to redirect a portion of those savings toward prevention-focused initiatives, including expanded spay/neuter and TNR services. Understanding how these resources will be invested to improve outcomes for animals and residents is important for ensuring the City's limited resources are being deployed as effectively as possible. Will any portion of the resources associated with the overnight shift reduction will be dedicated to prevention programs and expanded access to spay/neuter services?
The challenges facing Animal Services cannot be solved through shelter operations alone. A stronger investment in prevention, improved transparency regarding community demand, clear accountability, and strategic planning offer the most promising path toward reducing intake, improving animal welfare, and better serving residents. I respectfully ask for your support in advancing these priorities and to develop a more robust and measurable prevention strategy, and ensuring that future budget decisions reflect the demonstrated demand for spay/neuter and TNR services within our community.
Thank you for your consideration and for your continued service to the residents and animals of San Jose.
Dinah Hayse
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Yours sincerely,
Dawn
Dawn Coppin, PhD (she/her)
Chief Executive Officer
San José Public Library Foundation
Tax ID: 77-0142379
P .O. Box 611540, San Jose, CA 95161-1540
| www.sjplf.org
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. genealogists, homeowners, developers, and interested citizens a year. For example, I used the California Room to help research the attached article.
Should the California Room be allowed to close, an appointment-based system could limit access to fewer than 300 visits a year and leave whole collections of important materials inaccessible. Continued 2026-27 funding, even at a reduced level, can be a bridge to leverage community support for a more sustainable long-term public/private funding model, but only if the California Room remains open and accessible to all.
Sincerely
Bill Hough
Virus-free.www.avg.com
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. use the resource and get support when they need it.
Mayor Mahan, your June budget memo includes roughly $3.85M in recommended one-time project and program funding. Keeping the California Room partially open through MBA #19 is estimated at $245,000 annually, about 6.4% of that amount. I am not suggesting which items should or should not be funded, but I am asking that this essential, citywide civic resource be prioritized in the final package. While I can see value in virtually all of the one-time funding suggestions, I do not see universal or equal value and impact in many of them when I weigh tax-funded dollars and “bang for your buck” return for residents.
I ask that you please adopt MBA #19 as the responsible compromise that reduces costs while ensuring the California Room can remain staffed and open to the public. San José deserves a future that remembers its past.
All the best,
Jonathan
--
Jonathan Francisco Borca
East San José Advocate
Vice Chair, San José Arts Commission (District 5)
CORE Team Member, San José Arts Advocates
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/jonathanborca
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
SAN FRANCISCO LOS ANGELES SACRAMENTO SAN JOSE WASHINGTON DC
| www page turnbull com
Closing this invaluable public resource to save 0.6% of the City Library budget would be a devastating decision, especially as San Jose prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year.
I ask you to protect the California Room and preserve public access to our shared history.
Thank you for your consideration.
Best Regards,
Annika Bhardwaj
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Open access to the California Room is an essential public service that benefits over five thousand students, educators, planners, historians, genealogists, homeowners, developers, and interested citizens a year.
Should the California Room be allowed to close, an appointment-based system could limit access to fewer than 300 visits a year
and leave whole collections of important materials
inaccessible.
Continued 2026-27 funding, even at a reduced level, can be a bridge to leverage community support for a more sustainable long-term public/private funding model, but only if the California Room remains open and accessible to all.
Please keep our City's vast and important history alive by allowing it to be accessible and preserved.
Sincerely and with my best regards,
Diane Solomon, District 6 resident
ps: Many thanks for making San José a great place to live
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Please look at the alternative plan being presented to keep the California Room open for some hours And to retain some staff jobs.
California History is extremely precious and we, who live in this state and love this state, learn from its history every day of our lives. This shared history teaches us better tolerance and understanding so That we realize everything that makes up the history of our state makes California what it is today.
We understand the sacrifices the generations before us made and it makes us realize every decision We make affects the future of our state. The more understanding and compassion we have for the People who are part of the history of our state allows us to live our lives in California to make A better place for all.
I am making a donation to PAC San Jose today to help them in their work to preserve, not only the history of San Jose, but the state also.
I hope that you and the city council will see fit to keep the California Room open. As a sixth generation Californian and a 1630 era Virginian descendant, I will be going to Willamsburg, Virginia soon in this 250th Anniversary year of our country. I am also a proud graduate of San Jose State. Virginia is working
hard to celebrate the founding of this country for all of the people, free, indentured or enslaved who Were a part of its history. I hope San Jose and California are able to do their part to keep the study Of California History alive by keeping the The California Room open at Martin Luther King Junior Library.
Thank you very much.
Best regards,
Jennifer Griffin
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Sincerely,
Marcella Gulmon
Fairgrounds Heritage Foundation
District 10
1 June 5, 2026
Honorable Mayor Mahan, Vice-Mayor Foley,
Councilmembers Campos, Candelas, Casey, Cohen, Doan, Kamei, Mulcahy, Ortiz, Tordillos
RE: California Room, NSE Budget
Please approve an alternative budget proposal to keep the California Room open.
SEVERELY LIMITED ACCESS PROPOSAL UNACCEPTABLE—BLOCKS PUBLIC USE The original budget proposal for 0.5 FTE limits use to 250 appointments per year to serve the 5500 patrons who used the California Room in the past year. This proposal begs the question:
who will have priority access? City Planning and Park staff? Developer and City Consultants? University professors? Scholars? Or will it be first come first serve?
SEVERELY LIMITED ACCESS COULD INCREASE OR DELAY CITY STAFF WORK PLANS Planning staff uses the California Room files to research permits. The new Tordillos-Mahan initiated project to update the Historic Resources Inventory depends on accessing the original 1976 research and other material that are lodged only at the California Room. The Parks department may have to defer or delay naming of parks because they cannot access materials that confirm nominees’ qualifications. The City Clerk’s Office may experience more public records requests for minutes and other records that are stored at the California Room--items that public researchers could access directly if the California Room were open.
MYTH: ONLY WHITE PEOPLE HISTORY—it’s much more than the gold rush and wagon trains The California Room has collections reflecting the diversity of our city. Continuing the work of the first Spanish bilingual librarian George Kobayashi, a strong collection of immigrant materials that are housed in the California Room. Ranging from the activist Sophie Mendoza archive to the Charles “Chuck” Alexander photo collection of African American life, the California Room attempts to capture the range of San Jose residents’ experiences.
A sampling the California Room’s culturally significant collections and books follows. A Mercury article about George’s work to diversify the collection is appended.
Please fund the California Room so that every San Jose resident, student, and researcher can have access to the story our City’s diversity. We need more than 250 hours annualy to know ourselves and to do the City’s work.
Sincerely,
Jean Dresden
Appendices: Sampling Culturally Diverse Collections, Sampling Culturally Diverse Books, Mercury article.
2 Appendix A
A SAMPLING OF CULTURAL COLLECTIONS/ARCHIVES
• Sophia Mendoza Collection. Materials about the political accomplishments of a San Jose activist and community icon. She was key in the seminal 1968 Roosevelt School walk-out protesting racist treatment of Spanish speaking students in San Jose schools.
She co-founded United People Arriba and Community Action Patrol to address racist policing. She advocated for health care access leading to the East Valley Medical Clinic. • Anita Campos Collection of San Jose GI Forum Materials. The San Jose GI Forum was formed in 1968 for Hispanic veterans who were often excluded from other Veterans groups.
• Los Lupeños de San José Records. A study and performance group of Mexican dance and culture founded in 1969. Clippings, administrative records, photos, correspondence. • Ernestina Garcia Collection. Covers Mexican American political action from 1960s- 1980s, include the establishment of the La Raza Unida Party. • Frank and Mary Andrade Bilingual Newspaper and Achievements Collections. Includes issues of La Oftera newspapers, photographs, and publication. • George Kobayashi’s Collection of early Vietnamese immigration. Primarily comprised of newspaper collections.
• Henry Rountree Jr Collection. A pre-eminent member of the African American community, this Baptist minister nicknamed “Super Turtle” would walk the City at night offering support to those in need.
• Edmonia Lewis Collection. Three of her sculptures were purchased in 1873 by the San Jose Library Association (precursor to the public library) and are housed in the California Room and travel the world to arts museums. She was mixed African-American and Native heritage and became prominent in arts world and her works was displayed in the 1876 Centennial exposition in Philadelphia. She is very popular among California Room patrons with her biography accessed nearly every day.
• Charles Alexander Collection. Chuck arrived at San Jose State in 1955 on an athletic scholarship. He founded the San Jose chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi a traditionally African American fraternity. San Jose State did not offer housing to African American students in the 1950s, so Chuck founded the Good Brothers House at 5 th and St John. He went on to
become a probation officer and the head of Juvenile Hall. He chronicled the social, political and spiritual lives of San Jose’s African American community with photographs.
3 Appendix B
A TINY SAMPLING OF CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT BOOKS, REPORTS AND MATERIALS FOUND ON CALIFORNIA ROOM SHELVES:
East Side Dreams. Memoir by Art Rodriguez. (1999) Seven copies were purchased for the system; only 2 remain. The one in the California Room is safe.
Silicon Valley. Sam Shueh. A photo history.
Rain of Gold. Victor Veillaseñor. Three generation story starting with migration from revolutionary Mexican in early 20
th Century to California.
Farewell to Manzanar. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Story of Japanese Internment Camps.
San Jose Japantown A Journey. Curt Fukuda with Ralph Pearce. The history of San Jose’s Japantown. Ralph works in the California Room.
Chinese in San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley by Chiniese Historical and Cultural Project.
Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family. Yochiko Uchida. Japanese Internment.
Alpha Girls the Women Upstarts Who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime. Julian Guthrie. Four women. A Turkish immigrant. First generation Asian American. Southerner. Midwesterner. Came to Silicon Valley and became stars.
The Ohlone Way Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Malcolm Margolin,
On Gold Mountain. Lisa See. 100 year history of a Chinese family in California.
My March With Cesar. Marco Lopez Quezada. Through his eyes gives broad understanding of movement between US Southwest and northern Mexican when people were formulating strategies to stand up to racial inequality.
African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County. Jan Batiste. Through photos their story is told.
Cultural Conflict and Adaptation. The Case of Hmong Children in American Society. Enrique Trueba.
A Barrelful of Memories: My Azorean Family. Pauline Correia. Most San Jose Portugese have roots in the Azores.
4 Appendix C
LIBRARIAN DOCUMENTS IMMIGRANTS' EXPERIENCE –
Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA) - July 31, 1991 - page 1 July 31, 1991 | Mercury News, The (San Jose, CA) | LISA CHEN, Mercury News Staff Writer
San Jose's first bilingual librarian has been honored for his efforts in preserving California history -- some of it recent history.
Librarian George Kobayashi is the recipient of this year's Sourisseau Academy award, an honor that includes a $500 research grant. The award is given to Santa Clara County residents who have devoted life-long service to preserving California history.
Kobayashi, 60, of San Jose has been a librarian in the San Jose public library system for 29 years.
For the past six years he has headed the California Room at the library's main branch, where he has built a strong collection of materials based on the experience of recent immigrants in this country, including a 10-year compilation of Vietnamese-American history, mostly culled from newspapers.
''That's what I zeroed in on immediately," Kobayashi explained. "My focus was the accessibility (of materials) and representation of the new immigrants in the California Room." When Kobayashi joined the San Jose public library system in 1961, he was the staff's first minority group member and bilingual librarian.
'
'When I started (the position), I spoke Spanish, which was a rarity (for librarians) in East San Jose at the time," said Kobayashi, a third-generation Japanese-American who learned Spanish from growing up in a Spanish speaking neighborhood in Sacramento.
But Kobayashi, who moved to San Jose 30 years ago, didn't stop at Spanish. When he noticed the rapid growth of the Southeast Asian community in Santa Clara County, Kobayashi took night courses in conversational Vietnamese, Tagalog and Samoan. ''I was reaching out into the community to achieve for myself a better understanding of new immigrants coming in," Kobayashi said. "The whole object is to make them feel comfortable. I use (language) to break down barriers," he said.
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. longtime community activist.
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Sincerely,
Victor Sin
Santa Clara County Volunteer Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California
200 E. Santa Clara Street,
San José CA 95113
June 5, 2026
Re: Item 3.1, Public Hearing on the 2026-2027 Proposed Operating and Capital Budgets and the 2026-2027 Proposed Fees and Charges for the City of San José Dear Mayor Mahan and City Councilmembers,
On behalf of the Santa Clara County Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California, I submit public comments on agenda item 3.1, “Public Hearing on the 2026-2027 Proposed Operating and Capital Budgets and the 2026-2027 Proposed Fees and Charges for the City of San José” of the City Council meeting on June 8, 2026.
We are concerned about the key budget action “Artificial Intelligence Report Writing Tool ($750,000)/Police” listed in page 30 of the 2026-2027 Proposed Operating Budget document. Police reports play a crucial role in our justice system. They are central to the criminal proceedings that determine people’s innocence, guilt, and punishment, and are often the only official account of what took place during a particular incident. Introducing novel AI language-generating technology into the criminal justice system raises significant civil liberties and civil rights concerns. These concerns include the unreliability and biased nature of AI, evidentiary and memory issues when officers resort to this technology, and issues around transparency.
AI problems
There are different accuracy and bias issues when AI software is used to transcribe body-worn camera footage into a police report.
AI may perform worse in loud environments, in situations where unrelated conversations interject (such as radio chatter), and in certain types of incidents such as traffic accidents. Studies1 have found that automatic speech recognition systems perform much more poorly in accurately transcribing African American Vernacular English and other dialects of Black English. Errors in interpreting Black English can and have hurt people legally. Similar errors could come with those who speak with an accent.
Even if an AI program does not make explicit errors, it could still spin things in subtle, biased directions, perhaps in ways that an officer does not even notice. Because Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained 1 Bias in Automatic Speech Recognition: The Case of African American Language | Applied Linguistics | Oxford Academic
on something close to the entire Internet, they inevitably absorb the racism, sexism, and other biases that permeate our culture.
In an ideal world, officers would carefully review an AI-generated first draft of a police report and correct any “hallucinations” or other errors. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. So, one important question is how many such errors will creep into police reports and lead to injustices.
Evidentiary and memory problems
When an incident happens, it is critical that the record reflects the best and most diverse possible sources of evidence. Body-worn camera video evidence is not objective because what it portrays can depend on camera angle, lighting, resolution, when it is turned on, the sensitivity and placement of the mic, and many other factors. Another key potential source of evidence is the officer’s memory of what took place. But human memory is extremely malleable. If an officer reviews the recording, either directly or via an AI report writing tool, before providing their statement, the recording may write over certain facts or details the officer might have otherwise surfaced through the process of memorializing the incident.
It is also important to capture the officer’s subjective experience and memory of an incident — which may be pivotal to determining whether to file charges and later, in any prosecution — which will be based on all five of an officer’s senses, as well as their perception of human nuances of the situation such as whether somebody is hostile or meek, frightened or bold. This subjective experience cannot be captured by a bodycam.
The point is to have as many independent sources of evidence for what took place as possible. The body camera video and the police officer’s memory are two separate pieces of evidence. But if the police report is just an AI rehash of the body camera video, you no longer have two separate pieces of evidence.
Technology transparency and discovery problems
Any system that feeds information into our criminal justice system and has the potential to affect the fate of people accused of crimes must be open for experts, the media, and interested members of the public to inspect, study, and experiment with. Private companies are not subject to transparency laws like the federal Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act that can be used to pry information out of government agencies.
The lack of transparency also threatens to become a significant legal issue when people are charged with crimes. In a 1963 decision, Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors must turn over to defense attorneys any information in their possession that suggests defendants may not be guilty or is relevant to how they may be sentenced. The use of AI raises major questions about the scope of such sharing.
A loss of the human disciplinary function that police reports play In addition to the instrumental role that police reports play in the justice system’s machinery, forcing police to write down reasons for their exercise of discretionary power (like stops, frisks, searches, consent searches, etc.) reminds them of the legal limits of their authority.2 The act of writing reports functions as a form of internal mental discipline for police that continually reminds them of limits on their power. So, police reports don’t just create external accountability, they also create internal mechanisms for enforcing limits on police power in real time. A shift to AI-drafted police reports would sweep away
2 ACLU White Paper on Police Departments' Use of AI to Draft Police Reports | American Civil Liberties Union these important internal roles that reports play within police departments and within the minds of officers.
Privacy of bystanders
Body-worn camera footage may inevitably capture images of bystanders and persons not involved in an incident. If the AI report writing tool operates in such a way that the vendor of the tool or another third party has access to the camera footage, there are concerns about protecting the privacy of the bystanders.
For all the afore-mentioned reasons, we do not believe police departments should allow officers to use AI to generate draft police reports. We urge you not to approve the key budget action “Artificial Intelligence Report Writing Tool ($750,000)/Police.”
Thank you for your consideration and attention to this important issue.
Respectfully,
Victor Sin
Santa Clara County Volunteer Chapter of the ACLU of Northern California