Willow Glen Resident

News

Some light is starting to shine on the way San Jose operates

By Monica Heger

San Jose is steadily taking steps toward a more open, participatory government. The selection of the sunshine reform task force is nearly complete, and the council is implementing some of the suggested reforms.

Council members voted unanimously May 23 to move forward with a six-month pilot program on 13 suggested reforms. Members also asked the task force to study nine others.

These reforms will give residents access to detailed accounting on all city contracts and expenditures of $1 million or more, two weeks before a council vote. If the report is not available, the council will need a two-thirds majority vote to approve the expenditure.

Other reforms include posting public information online, including council members' conflict of interest declarations, the council members' and mayor's calendars and the city council policy and manual.

The last of the reforms, which will be implemented immediately through the pilot program, have to do with neighborhood participation. These include providing a citywide budget briefing and four budget hearings, holding public priority meetings on odd years and expanding speaking time from two to four minutes for neighborhood group or community association designees or for residents subject to eminent domain.

The impact of these reforms will be analyzed and sent back to the task force for further review should any significant problems arise.

Another item of public concern that will be implemented right away, even though it was not listed in the original 13 reforms, is reviewing the feasibility of posting a master calendar of all public meetings and other items of public interest online. The city will look into the costs associated with posting the calendar.

Ed Rast, president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, told council members a master calendar is a major public priority, and a task that should not be delayed.

The nine other proposals are slated for further studied by the task force. They were deemed too complicated for immediate implementation. Those items included more community involvement in land-use issues, making video archives accessible immediately after a meeting, getting third-party review of items that are of significant public interest, posting a detailed line-item budget and public record requests online.

The exact cost of implementing the 13 proposals is unknown, but the city estimated an initial cost of approximately $200,000. This includes about $50,000 for the support of the task force, $75,000 for an employee to work in the city manager's office and $75,000 for additional staffing needs, particularly Internet Technology work.

For more information about the sunshine reforms task force, visit http:// www.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/TaskForce/SRTF/SRTF.asp.