San Jose Rules Committee Meeting – March 18, 2026

All right, it's two o'clock, so we're going to call call, please.

Condelas.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

We start by reviewing our agenda for next Tuesday's council meeting.

And continues on page six.

Downtown Residential Incentive Program Tax and Fee Waiver for Gateway.

No public comment.

Okay, back to the committee.

Let's vote.

plan housing element and that's it back to uh if we have any comment no public comment okay back to the committee move approval with the ad sheet all right it's been moved and seconded let's vote motion carries five zero we have no meeting for march 31st and so we move on to our consent calendar we have five items on consent today do we have any public comment on consent yes Brian please go ahead and make your way to the podium good afternoon I hope everybody's doing okay and um just something that would be really helpful for me and I'm sure for other people and I've asked this before because we the public record you get thousands well the couple times hundreds and I can't expect you to read all of that and sometimes my letters are 10 or 12 pages long which is probably too long for someone to read but we really do want to be part of the if you could put on your website how you want us to present information in an email because some stuff it's more complicated than just two or three sentences up front and then with the supporting data in the back it would be really helpful and maybe along with that commonly asked questions where you have a video answer you can just refer people to that I was thinking and actually put forward something a couple times there's people at San Jose State looking for um ways to finish you know things to do with school projects and stuff having them do that I know it sounds sort of off the cuff and it is but I'd ask you to look into that because it would really help me and other people who really want to be part of this and feel like we're being heard also AI is a good way to answer emails and at least give some kind of response back to quite honestly a lot of emails don't get responded to thank you.

Back to the committee okay thank you I'll have entertain a motion for the consent calendar okay let's vote motion carries five zero and now we're on to our two uh action items for today there's a memo uh on which I am a co-author along with uh council member Kamei um about alfresco um do you want to say anything about it yeah thank you chair um I'd like to thank uh council member Otis for uh leading this memo and thank my uh colleague council members Cohen Tordillas Mulkey for co-signing this effort the Alfesco program was a lifeline for our small businesses especially during uh COVID 19 pandemic uh helping keep restaurants open workers employed and our neighborhoods active this memo is about building on that success and making it permanent we have an opportunity to to help support small businesses as we continue our economic recovery especially during a tough budget year uh a modernization program can activate our public spaces and drive foot traffic in areas such as downtown our urban villages and our business improvement districts at the time uh we should allow more flexible and creative outdoor dining options and clear design standards that will give businesses certainty and confidence to confidence to invest uh and we want to keep it simple low barrier pathway for our small businesses I think that many of us have enjoyed the al fresco uh uh time that uh we had and I think people do uh genuinely enjoy it so I'm hoping that we can move this forward oh and I would uh suggest that we will work I think at this point what we'll do is refer this for a work a work analysis and bring it back to probably next week or two weeks from now it rules maybe two weeks okay okay all right so is that a motion yes okay is there a second so I can all right we have a motion and a second do you have any public comment no public comment okay um so this has been moved for workload analysis let's vote motion is five zero okay motion carries five zero now we're on to our second item this is a joint memo between council member command and myself um to add a resolution on higher education to the city council meeting agenda for next week um you want to just introduce it first yes thank you so much uh thank you so much chair uh okay there's a right and a left it still doesn't work for you okay um uh I want to speak very briefly on the resolution uh local universities like Stanford Santa Clara San Jose State are important partners who contribute so much not only to the wider world but also to our local a local community and economy from providing access to high quality education to creating qualified professional professional across almost every industry in the city the unif these universities are invaluable partners uh they generate incredible economic activity in the region and are the heart of innovation culture we are so proud of here in San Jose that's why I think it's important that we stand in solidarity with university against attempts to coerce them by federal administration academic freedom is a historic and deeply important tradition it ensures that our university campuses continue to serve as hubs of creativity

These universities are invaluable partners.

They generate incredible economic activity in the region and are the heart of innovation culture.

We are so proud of here in San Jose.

That's why I think it's important that we stand in solidarity with university against attempts to coerce them by federal administration.

Academic freedom is a historic and deeply important tradition.

It ensures that our university campuses continue to serve as hubs of creativity and progress for generations to come.

Thank you, Councilmember Cohen, for supporting this resolution.

I uh therefore respectfully ask for your support in standing with our university partners and passing this resolution on to the city council for their consideration.

Okay, well, we'll start with public comment on this item.

We have four speaker cards as I call your names.

Please go ahead and make your way to the podium.

Michaela, Tom, Brian, and Casey.

Hello, my name is Michaela Akin.

I am a second year political science major at San Jose State University, and I'm here today on behalf of students to speak about the impacts that are that we are experiencing as this resolution addresses the coercion of colleges and universities.

As a black woman in leadership on my campus, I understand deeply what it means for your education to be both a pathway and a promise for many students, especially students of color, international students, and the LGBTQ students, higher education is a space where we pursue opportunity research and futures where we worked our entire lives for.

But today that promise feels uncertain.

The federal administration actions towards universities like SJSU have created instability across our academic community.

The memorandum highlights how reductions in federal funding and targeted actions toward universities have already had tangible consequences, layoffs, threats to research funding, and pressure on institutions to adopt specific political viewpoints.

For students, this is not an abstract policy debate.

This is our education.

Research grants disappearing means students lose opportunities to build careers in science, technology, and public service.

Visa threats and political pressure created for international students who come here to learn and to be hindered.

And when universities are forced to operate under political caution, it undermines the academic freedom that allows scholarship and innovation to thrive.

And while there may be legal battle unfolding between institutions and the federal government, there is still very real pain and suffering from the political pressure felt by the communities on our campus.

Students who already face marginalization are carrying the emotional weight of uncertainty, fear, and instability while simply trying to go to class and complete their degrees.

Students should not have to choose between education and their safety, their research or their voice.

I urge the council to support this resolution and stay.

Thank you, Nick Speaker.

Um hi everyone.

Thanks, Representative Kamei for um already recognized I'm sorry, I'm Casey was on the executive director of financial aid at Santa Clara University.

So I appreciate already recognizing the partnership that we have and other universities in the area with the City of San Jose, and just wanted to come and kind of add some more context to that as well.

Um every day I see the direct impact of federal funding on students' ability to uh to access and persist in higher education.

Um federal financial aid programs are foundational to making colleges like Santa Clara University within reach for students from working families, first generation students, and others who might not have uh access otherwise to higher education.

These same students are often already navigating greater financial stress and systematic barriers.

Uh, when financial uh federal funding is used as a political lever by either freezing threatening or conditioning the funding on ideological compliance.

These underserved and historically disadvantaged students feel at first.

The impact extends beyond financial aid.

Our School of Engineering's frugal lab conducts research, developing affordable technology for underserved communities, including mobile applications connecting homeless individuals to services right here in San Jose.

Our faculty and students work in healthcare innovation, renewable energy, AI ethics, and neuroscience, all dependent on merit-based grant funding.

When political considerations replace scientific merit, we don't just lose grants, we lose discoveries and the students that train to make them.

Santa Clara's mission is to educate the whole person for a more just and humane world.

So I urge everyone here to uh to pass this resolution to consider it for in the following week and um to show that San Jose stands with the colleges and universities of the area.

Thank you.

Councilmember Cohen, Council members, my name is Tom Adams.

When the Trump administration attacked Harvard University, the Harvard alums formed an informal organization to fight back and to fight for academic freedom for Harvard and for other universities around the country.

That organization is called Crimson Courage.

I'm a volunteer for Crimson Courage.

I'm a retired environmental lawyer.

I practice law here in the Bay Area for over 50 years.

The Trump administration is attacking in these universities academic freedom, the exploration of innovation, scientific research based on merits, and diversity on campus.

They're asking for exorbitant demands of the universities as a form of extortion.

One of the most recent examples is that the Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against UCLA, demanding one billion dollars in damages.

There's no rational or legal basis for such a demand, but it does create an atmosphere where the administration can extort other issues.

President Trump has said he wants UCLA to be a conservative campus.

We here in the Bay Area know the relationship between freedom of research, research on the merits, and academic freedom and the power of an innovation economy.

Silicon Valley was created out of basic research that was conducted at Stanford in the 40s and 50s.

Out of basic research has risen this entire industry, which is create such a power here and an economic power around the globe.

That kind of academic freedom and research is essential to our progress as a nation.

We have asked local governments to help stand up with the universities in the face of these demands.

The university, next speaker, please.

And he said that we didn't land on the moon and that the earth is flat.

And I know this person, he's a nice man.

I don't believe he's angry or evil or anything like that.

But he lived in a world of absolutes when we all exist in a universe of probabilities.

That's what science, political science, whatever it is, it's teaching you to look at the many colored facets, not us or them.

Better than better, worse, these people are against us our enemy.

That is the sign of a weak intellectual and I don't hold spiritual thought.

Because we we're a species that will either survive or not survive, understanding the probabilities and building mitigations to them.

That's what college does.

It's not only an economic forum, but if the world ends due to climate crisis, or somebody decides they're gonna drop a nuke somewhere, then all the rest of it sort of moot, I think.

I think it would be.

Back to the committee.

Thank you.

And as somebody who spent more years than I care to admit on university campuses doing research, um, I it is incredibly important that universities have good faith partners in the federal government and that they're allowed to be independent and teach people how to think critically and not under coercion.

So I appreciate Councilmember Kamei allowing me to partner with her on this memo, and I'll entertain a motion to move it forward.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Don't see any of their hands, so let's vote.

Okay.

Motion carries five zero.

That brings us to open forum.

Brian.

I have to admit, I wept today when I read about Cesar Chavez.

And I don't know all the truth.

I do know that some lady after 60 years isn't going to just say what she said, and the family seems to validate.

It was I work at a the state institution for about 11, 12 years and worked with people with disabilities for 50.

One of the things that comes out is abuse.

So eventually, maybe someday it doesn't happen.

That's our objective.

But I do hope that other people come forward if they are victims and survivors, and that there's a uh an accountability even after that many years.

Thank you.

Back to the committee.

All right, thank you.

Today I want to acknowledge uh four of the students that have come out uh from Lynn Brook High School to observe uh civics, and uh just want to say welcome to our rules and open government committee.

And uh it was their first observation in terms of a government entity.

So I just want to say thank you so much, and I want to thank the people who came to speak today.

All right.

Well, and thank you for being here.

We love having a youth explore and understand better what goes on in our local government.

So thanks for coming, and we are adjourned at 2.19 PM.

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