2025-06-09 San Jose City Council Final Budget Public Hearing
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2025-06-09 San Jose City Council Final Budget Public Hearing
The San Jose City Council held its final public hearing on Monday, June 9, 2025, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers to receive community input on the proposed 2025-2026 Operating Budget, 2025-2027 Biennial Capital Budget, and the 2025-2026 Fees & Charges Report, including a revision of Measure E Real Property Transfer Tax revenue allocations. The Council will vote on the budget and related policies on June 10. Over 260 speaker cards were submitted, with each speaker allotted one minute. The hearing focused overwhelmingly on homelessness policy, accountability measures, and immigration services.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Support for Mayor’s Budget (Accountability & Responsibility to Shelter): Many residents, including Steve Navarro (D7), Eric Schoenauer (D5), and representatives from neighborhood associations and business groups, expressed support for the mayor’s June budget message emphasizing accountability, tying pay to performance, and the “responsibility to shelter” policy. They argued that building cost-effective shelters and requiring people to come indoors is necessary to address the homelessness crisis, noting that over 1,000 shelter beds are opening this year and about 200 homeless individuals die annually. Speakers cited public safety concerns, fires, trash, and negative impacts on quality of life, with some sharing personal experiences of being threatened or assaulted.
- Opposition to Mayor’s Budget (Criminalization & Housing Focus): A large number of speakers, including members of SURGE, SERGE, Amigos de Guadalupe, the Real Coalition, and formerly unhoused individuals, opposed the mayor’s plan. They argued it criminalizes homelessness by arresting people for camping when shelter is offered, while there are not enough beds (90% of those encountered cannot access shelter). They called for using Measure E funds for permanent affordable housing and prevention, expanding the TRUST non-police response team to 24/7, and rejecting the $2.1 million SJPD Quality of Life Unit. Several speakers cited the Campbell’s Law principle about metrics being gamed, and noted that criminal records make it harder to get housing and jobs.
- Immigration Legal Services: Dozens of speakers, including families, youth, and advocates (e.g., Amigos de Guadalupe, Law Foundation), urged the Council to allocate $1.5 million for legal representation and rapid response for immigrants facing deportation, warning that ICE activity is escalating (citing LA raids). They stressed that immigrants with legal counsel are 10 times more likely to win their cases. Some supported using savings from SJPD vacancies for this purpose.
- Climate Smart Funding: Youth from Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and others called for restoring non-personnel funding for Climate Smart to at least $625,000 (FY 2022-23 levels), arguing that cuts hinder the city’s 2030 carbon neutrality goal and that climate change exacerbates homelessness and public health issues.
- Animal Shelter & Other Issues: Several speakers criticized the San Jose Animal Care Center for mismanagement, lack of spay/neuter services, and high euthanasia rates, demanding accountability and new leadership. Others advocated for restoring funding for youth drop-in centers (Alum Rock, Alviso, Berryessa), the Moxa youth center, and the older adult health and wellness program. A few thanked the city for recent support (e.g., Christmas in the Park).
Key Outcomes
- No decisions were made at this hearing. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget and related policy items on June 10, 2025. Public comments from this hearing will inform their deliberations.
Meeting Transcript
Everyone. Good evening. Welcome to the public hearing for the 25-26 proposed operating budget, the 25 through 27 proposed biannual capital budget and the 2526 proposed fees and charges. We are going to call this uh public hearing to order. Tony, would you please call the roll? Yes, Kamei. Here. Campos. Present. Salis. Cohen. Here. Ortiz. Present. Here. Duan. Here. Candellas? Here. Casey? Here. Fully? Here. Mayhem. Here. You have a quorum. Great. Thank you. Welcome to your city hall. We're very happy to have you all here. This is our annual hearing on the budget. The council will vote on the budget itself and many related policy components tomorrow. Tonight, the council will not be discussing any of the items or voting. We are here to hear from you. And I've had that opportunity going out now and doing over a dozen community town halls, at least one in every district in the city. Having heard from hundreds, probably well over a thousand residents at this point, not to mention all the email you've sent us. But we really appreciate your engagement. This is your opportunity to express your priorities, your values, what you hope the council thinks about as we vote on the budget tomorrow and continue doing policy work well beyond that. For large meetings like this, a few housekeeping items that I always like to reiterate. Number one, we have over 200 comment cards. By the time the night is over, it may be over 300. So we're going to have public comment be one minute, 60 seconds per person. We have a few other ground rules. It is very important that people do not disrupt the meeting. This is each individual's opportunity to exercise your first amendment rights. No cheering, no booing. I know folks have signs. You're allowed to have signs, but do not hold them up and block the person behind you because that negatively impacts their ability to pay it to watch the screen and to participate. We ask everyone to be respectful. If you want to show your support for someone, uh the easiest, most efficient way to do it so the next person can hear our clerk call their name for their one minute of public comment is to just use your jazz hands to show them as they're walking back up that you like what they had to say.
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