San Jose City Council Rules Committee Meeting Summary - March 25, 2026
San Jose City Council Rules Committee Meeting Summary - March 25, 2026
The San Jose City Council Rules Committee met on March 25, 2026, starting at 2:00 PM and adjourning at 2:17 PM. Roll call established a quorum with Councilmembers Candeles, Duan, Fully, Come, and Cohen present. No meeting was scheduled for the following week.
Consent Calendar – April 7th Council Agenda Preview
- The committee reviewed the agenda for the April 7, 2026 council meeting, which includes a 9:30 AM closed session and 1:30 PM open session. Consent items start on page 5 and include items on pages 5–6. Notable items in section 3 (government AI coalition creation as a nonprofit), section 6 (Willow Rock Long Duration Energy Storage Agreement, San Diego Community Power Resource Adequacy Trade), and section 8 (establishment of the Story Road Business Improvement District, loan commitment for VTA Capital Station, and second amendment to the annual action plan).
- No public comment was received.
- The motion to approve the agenda review passed 5-0.
Consent Calendar – Current Meeting
- Seven items on the consent agenda were approved unanimously with a 5-0 vote. No public comment was offered.
Public Comments & Testimony
- On the Lower-Income Voucher and Equity Program (police preference item): Huascar Castro of Working Partnerships expressed support for the memo authored by Councilmembers Casey, Cohen, Ortiz, and Candelas. Castro praised the innovative financing approach and the effort to create housing opportunities for public safety workers, while noting legal barriers to preferences that would need to be addressed.
- Open Forum: A member of the public (D1/D9) spoke in remembrance of Bambi Larson, a woman murdered seven years ago near the speaker's home. The speaker criticized the city's handling of the incident and requested a moment of silence. The committee acknowledged the comment but did not take action.
Discussion Items
- Initiating Process for Public Assets Named for Cesar Chavez: Councilmember Tees introduced a memo directing staff to inventory all public assets bearing Cesar Chavez's name and develop a community-driven process to evaluate them. Tees emphasized the need to center survivors and accountability, and that the process does not predetermine outcomes. Councilmember Candeles supported the effort, highlighting the importance of community involvement and naming organizations such as La Raza Historical Society and NAACP. Councilmember Duan acknowledged the pain for farm workers and victims. Vice Mayor Foley noted the city manager had already started work after news broke and advocated for a thoughtful, broad outreach process. The item moved forward without a workload analysis (work already underway). Motion to advance to full council passed 5-0.
- Clarification on Lower-Income Voucher and Equity Program (Police Preference): The committee considered a memo responding to a previous council discussion. The memo proposed a preference for San Jose Police Department officers (up to 50 of 200+ units) rather than a set-aside, allowing any qualifying low-income voucher holder to rent unfilled units. Councilmember Duan suggested a friendly amendment to include San Jose Fire Department and teachers, but the chair deferred that discussion to the full council on April 7th, advising that a separate memo be submitted. Councilmember Kamei asked legal counsel (Assistant City Attorney Kevin Fisher) whether a citywide employee preference would be defensible; Fisher indicated it likely would be if not discriminatory toward a protected class. Vice Mayor Foley expressed concern about fairness, arguing all city employees deserve access and that occupation-based preferences could create protected-class issues (e.g., a woman losing to a man simply because he is a police officer). Councilmember Kamei agreed with Foley. The motion to forward the item to the full council passed 5-0.
Key Outcomes
- The committee voted 5-0 to approve the preview of the April 7th council agenda.
- The consent agenda for the current meeting was approved 5-0.
- The Cesar Chavez asset evaluation item was approved 5-0 and will go to the full council for further action.
- The lower-income voucher program police preference memo was approved 5-0 to be placed on the April 7th council agenda, with the scope to be debated then.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, we are going to call today's meeting to order at two o'clock. And we'll start with roll call, please. Candeles. Here. Duan. Here. Fully. Here. Come here. Here. Cohen. Here. We have a quorum. All right. We don't have a meeting next week, so we'll start do our first review of the agenda for the April 7th council meeting, which has a 9 30 closed session, 1 30 open session, and consent starts on page five. Ends on page six. In section three, we have uh government AI coalition creation as a nonprofit. Section six, Willow Rock Long Duration Energy Storage Agreement, San Diego Community Power Resource Adequacy Trade. And in section eight, establishment of the Story Road Business Improvement District, and actions for related to a loan commitment for VTA Capital Station and Second Amendment to the annual action plan. Do we have any public comment? No public comment. Okay. Back to the committee. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. I don't see any comments, so we'll vote. And that motion carries five zero consent. We have seven items on our consent agenda. Is there any public comment on consent? No public comment. Okay. Approval second. All right, let's vote on consent. And that motion carries five zero. So now we're on to our action items for today. We have a memo uh related to initiating our um process regarding public assets named for Cesar Chavez. Um, Councilmember Tees, you want to kick that off. Thank you, Chair Cohen and the Honorable Rules Committee. I want to start by acknowledging that what has come to light about Cesar Chavez is deeply painful and disturbing. As someone whose advocacy and political foundation were shaped uh by looking up to the farm worker movement. This feels very personal. And I know that the same sense of hurt extends to many across our community. At the center of this conversation must be survivors. Our responsibility is to ensure that accountability, dignity, and healing guide how we move forward. That means creating space where survivors, especially those harmed by people in positions of power, can come forward without fear or shame and know that they will be heard. It also means being clear that no legacy is more important than truth. And no individual is about above accountability. This is about taking a responsible first step. It does not predetermine, I want to be clear, it doesn't predetermine any outcome.
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