OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

San José City Council 2025-2026 Budget Study Session - May 8, 2025

City Council — Thursday, May 8, 2025
BodySan Jose, California
SessionCity Council
DateThursday, May 8, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:32:53

Transcript — Verbatim
0:11

Everyone, welcome.

0:13

What a call to order today's budget study session for the morning of May 8th, day two.

0:20

Here we go.

0:21

Day one wasn't too bad, right?

0:23

Got through it on time.

0:25

Megan, would you please call the roll?

0:27

Come here.

0:28

Campos.

0:29

Silence.

0:31

Cohen.

0:32

Ortiz.

0:33

Present.

0:33

Mulcahi.

0:34

Here.

0:34

Duan.

0:35

Kendallas.

0:36

Here.

0:37

Casey.

0:38

Foley.

0:39

Maehan.

0:40

Here.

0:40

You have a quorum.

0:41

Great.

0:41

Thank you so much.

0:42

For today's study session, we will be hearing presentations on transportation and aviation services and environmental and utility services.

0:51

So we will get started first with transportation and aviation services, excluding lived in vehicles, which will be handled in a future study session.

1:02

Want to guide folks to try to focus in on the issues for this CSA, this presentation.

1:09

We uh will uh hear from staff and try to keep this section to roughly one hour, roughly 9 30 to 1030, and then I will uh transition us to our second study session on environmental and utility services, and once again we will get out of here by noon.

1:27

All right, let's jump in.

1:30

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

1:31

John Risto, director of surface transportation.

1:34

With me today is Muki Patel, our aviation director, and our new deputy city manager, Manuel Pineda.

1:41

So we will jump in.

1:42

As the mayor said, this is transportation and aviation services, and we're gonna go through a very brief slide presentation.

1:52

You can see on the slide, the core services that both our departments serve, which is really customer focused.

1:59

Uh obviously with the airport and the passengers and the people working at the airports, very, very much a customer service outcome.

2:08

And in transportation similar, we really do do a lot of core services right in people's front yard, their front street, and a lot of other services that support everyday living.

2:24

Just some of the program samples, and I'm sure you most of you are all aware of the types of services that both of our departments do.

2:30

Just to highlight a couple, it's the really the the airport and the terminals and the customer uh satisfaction that goes into running uh a really highly thought-of airport with the city of San Jose, and then all the other traffic safety and other services that we do provide with the uh transportation department, both above, on and below the surface of the roadways.

3:00

Uh some of our metrics.

3:03

While they they don't show a gigantic change, these are all positive or relatively positive from years uh in the past, and I just want to highlight a couple of them.

3:14

The passenger perception of airport satisfaction, it's a modest increase, but still an increase, and still this airport is doing very well with that in terms of comparative to other airports.

3:26

Then I also want to just highlight our pavement condition index continues to go up.

3:31

Uh, those of you that have been around while back in 2014, our pavement condition index was about 63, which was barely fair.

3:40

So over the last 10 or 11 years, we've raised it 10 points, which is a pretty significant improvement.

3:50

Some of the budget summary you can see up there.

3:52

Uh just want to point out again, and mayor mentioned this is that part of the transportation budget also uh ends up in the utility services CSA, and so we'll be talking about that later.

4:04

You can see there's very small increases in the operating portions of our both of our budgets and a small one one FTE increase in staffing.

4:16

Highlighting some of the priorities that we both have.

4:19

Um both the department of transportation and the aviation department.

4:23

Our top priority is safety, both for our passengers and our staff that are assigned to those roles.

4:30

So both Mookie and I put that as a top priority in our staffs as well.

4:34

Another one that's really important for airport is the last one to continue to provide safe services for passengers, airlines, and tenants, and prioritize the maintenance of that operations and a cost-effective operation, which Mookie and his staff do an excellent job of on to a couple of the proposed budget actions.

4:55

Just want to highlight a couple.

5:00

We will talk about this in a little bit, but there is a reserve set aside for an enhanced oversized lived in vehicle enforcement program that's coming up, but we will talk about.

5:48

And that does conclude our report.

5:51

Try to keep it short and we are ready for questions.

5:55

Short and sweet, all right.

5:58

Grateful for that.

5:59

Okay, we'll go to Vice Mayor Foley.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Works█████████████████████████25%
Transportation████████████████████20%
Public Safety███████████11%
Transportation Safety█████████9%
Wastewater Treatment████████8%
Environmental Regulation███████7%
Recycling Economy██████6%
Parking████4%
Procedural██2%
Summary of Proceedings

San José City Council 2025-2026 Budget Study Session - May 8, 2025

The City Council held a budget study session on May 8, 2025, from approximately 9:45 AM to 12:00 PM, focusing on the Transportation & Aviation Services (TAS) and Environmental & Utility Services (EUS) service areas. Councilmembers reviewed proposed budgets, performance metrics, and discussed key operational challenges and strategic investments.

Discussion Items

Transportation & Aviation Services (TAS)

  • Speed Camera Pilot Program: Vice Mayor Foley inquired about the status of the speed camera program, noting a $8.5 million federal grant is frozen. Deputy Director John Risto stated the city is waiting one month for the freeze to lift (Plan A) and has a Plan B for a phased approach using other funds. The city is also seeking a state legislative extension of the pilot from five to six or seven years due to federal delays.
  • Copper Wire Theft: Councilmember Candelas and Duan raised concerns about copper wire theft causing street light outages, particularly in Districts 8 and 7. Risto reported that at one point 1,600 lights were out; currently about 800 remain. The proposed capital budget includes $1 million (construction excise tax fund) to catch up on repairs. Deterrent methods (locking devices, concrete) have been ineffective. Police have made one arrest.
  • Expressway Maintenance: Councilmember Mulcahy asked about coordination with Caltrans and the county. Risto noted the city is exploring a delegated maintenance agreement with the county for expressways, but no funds are in the current budget. The city prefers the county to pay for enhanced maintenance.
  • Airport Economy: Aviation Director Muki Patel reported passenger traffic dropped 9% in January, 9% in February, and 5.3% in March, attributed to recessionary fears and a shift to leisure travel. Delta is cutting system-wide capacity but not eliminating nonstop destinations from San Jose; the BWI nonstop will pause for six weeks around New Year’s.
  • Pavement Condition Index (PCI): Councilmember Ortiz questioned the flat PCI target of 74 despite heavy paving. Risto explained that Measure T bond funds will expire in two years, losing ~40% of the paving budget, causing future PCI decline. The city is monitoring regional sales tax measures for replacement.
  • Sidewalk Repairs: A $250,000 proposal for sidewalk repairs adjacent to city-owned properties will prioritize high-walking areas. The city also has a program assisting private property owners with 50% or full cost of sidewalk repairs.
  • Parking Enforcement: The extended stay parking enforcement program is being eliminated due to low efficiency (vehicles move >50% of the time). A new program using automated license plate readers to target unregistered vehicles will be proposed. Pilot projects for more proactive street sweeping enforcement are also planned.
  • Performance Metrics: Mayor Mahan led a discussion on distinguishing between “health metrics” (indicators) and “performance measures” (targets with a theory of change). Budget Director Jim Shannon noted that targets have been recalibrated to be more achievable. Examples: bike network completion expected to rise from 14% to 16% due to grant-funded projects; passenger perception of airport cleanliness improved from 68% to 75% and is expected to continue rising.

Environmental & Utility Services (EUS)

  • Clean Energy Power Mix: Director Lori Mitchell explained a regulatory change in Diablo Canyon allocation caused a drop in carbon-free resources in FY24-25. New renewable power purchase agreements coming online will increase the renewable content in FY25-26.
  • Recycling Contamination: The recycling ambassador “lid flip” program reduced contamination from 50% to 41%, saving $6 million annually. Mayor Mahan noted that despite the gain, residential landfill diversion targets were lowered; Deputy Director Valerie Osmon stated targets are now more achievable based on trends.
  • Garbage Cart Size: Councilmember Duan suggested making larger garbage carts affordable to reduce recycling contamination. Osmon noted 85% of single-family homes use the 32-gallon cart; a study giving larger carts to 9,000 homes was inconclusive in reducing contamination. The city encourages use of extra garbage stickers.
  • Waste-to-Energy: Councilmember Duan asked about using solid waste (wipes, etc.) for energy. Regional Wastewater Facility General Manager Mariana Chavez stated the facility already uses organics for cogeneration, supplying 80% of its energy. Future projects will accept fats, oils, grease, and potentially food waste for co-digestion. Burning is limited by air emission regulations.
  • Recycled Water: Councilmember Salas noted recycled water delivery is at 12 million gallons per day, with potential to double as new customers (e.g., data centers) come online.
  • FTE Reductions: Councilmember Ortiz asked about a net reduction of 7.0 FTEs under staffing consolidation. Jeff Provenzano stated the reductions are mostly from vacant positions and realignments, with no expected service impact.
  • Stormwater Permit Compliance: Councilmember Campos asked about the impact of a recent Supreme Court decision. Provenzano said the decision does not affect the city’s state stormwater permit. The city is on track to meet the 100% trash load reduction requirement by December 2025, currently at 97% through trash capture devices. Non-compliance could lead to citations or violations.
  • Food Waste Separation: Councilmember Kamei asked about curbside food waste separation. Osmon explained that San Jose uses back-end processing: all garbage goes to a material recovery facility where organics are sorted out, so residents do not need to separate food waste.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken; this was a study session for discussion only.
  • Staff will proceed with a phased approach for speed cameras if the federal grant remains frozen, and will seek state legislative extension of the pilot program.
  • The $1 million for copper wire theft repairs will be included in the proposed capital budget if approved by council.
  • The city will continue exploring a delegated maintenance agreement with the county for expressways.
  • The new parking enforcement program targeting unregistered vehicles will be proposed in the Manager’s Budget Addendum (MBA).
  • Performance metrics in the budget will be updated to reflect a clearer distinction between indicators and performance measures; targets will be adjusted to be more realistic.
  • The MBA will also include pilot projects for proactive street sweeping enforcement.
  • No public comments were made.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 12:00 PM, with the next session scheduled for Monday, May 12, 2025, at 9:30 AM.

Meeting Transcript

Everyone, welcome. What a call to order today's budget study session for the morning of May 8th, day two. Here we go. Day one wasn't too bad, right? Got through it on time. Megan, would you please call the roll? Come here. Campos. Silence. Cohen. Ortiz. Present. Mulcahi. Here. Duan. Kendallas. Here. Casey. Foley. Maehan. Here. You have a quorum. Great. Thank you so much. For today's study session, we will be hearing presentations on transportation and aviation services and environmental and utility services. So we will get started first with transportation and aviation services, excluding lived in vehicles, which will be handled in a future study session. Want to guide folks to try to focus in on the issues for this CSA, this presentation. We uh will uh hear from staff and try to keep this section to roughly one hour, roughly 9 30 to 1030, and then I will uh transition us to our second study session on environmental and utility services, and once again we will get out of here by noon. All right, let's jump in. Thank you, Mayor and Council. John Risto, director of surface transportation. With me today is Muki Patel, our aviation director, and our new deputy city manager, Manuel Pineda. So we will jump in. As the mayor said, this is transportation and aviation services, and we're gonna go through a very brief slide presentation. You can see on the slide, the core services that both our departments serve, which is really customer focused. Uh obviously with the airport and the passengers and the people working at the airports, very, very much a customer service outcome. And in transportation similar, we really do do a lot of core services right in people's front yard, their front street, and a lot of other services that support everyday living. Just some of the program samples, and I'm sure you most of you are all aware of the types of services that both of our departments do. Just to highlight a couple, it's the really the the airport and the terminals and the customer uh satisfaction that goes into running uh a really highly thought-of airport with the city of San Jose, and then all the other traffic safety and other services that we do provide with the uh transportation department, both above, on and below the surface of the roadways. Uh some of our metrics. While they they don't show a gigantic change, these are all positive or relatively positive from years uh in the past, and I just want to highlight a couple of them. The passenger perception of airport satisfaction, it's a modest increase, but still an increase, and still this airport is doing very well with that in terms of comparative to other airports. Then I also want to just highlight our pavement condition index continues to go up. Uh, those of you that have been around while back in 2014, our pavement condition index was about 63, which was barely fair. So over the last 10 or 11 years, we've raised it 10 points, which is a pretty significant improvement. Some of the budget summary you can see up there. Uh just want to point out again, and mayor mentioned this is that part of the transportation budget also uh ends up in the utility services CSA, and so we'll be talking about that later. You can see there's very small increases in the operating portions of our both of our budgets and a small one one FTE increase in staffing. Highlighting some of the priorities that we both have. Um both the department of transportation and the aviation department.

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