This study session focused on the proposed Fiscal Year 26-27 operating budgets for the Neighborhood Services and Public Safety City Service Areas (CSAs). Council members and city staff discussed a range of service reductions, investments, and contingency plans, with particular attention to library cuts, homeless encampment management, and public safety staffing.
Please call the role. Kameh Campos. President Tordillos. Here. Cohen. Ortiz. Present. Walkhi. Here. Duan. Here. Candeles. Here. Casey. Foley. Mayhan. Here. You have a quorum. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. We are continuing on with neighborhood services, and I believe I'm handing it over to Jill. Yes, good morning, Mayor and City Council members. I am Jill Bourne City Librarian. I'm here with my colleagues, Eric Sullivan, Director of Housing Department, John Cesarelli, Director of Parks Recreation, Neighborhood Services, Rachel Roberts, the Assistant Director of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, and Angel Rios, our deputy city manager. We are here to present the overview of the fiscal year 2627 proposed operating budget of the neighborhood services city service area. Collectively, this CSA is responsible for such elevated and critical outcomes as providing community spaces, equitable access to opportunity, vibrant public life, and housing security. Through our wide variety of core services, the departments in the city service area are uniquely integral to our residents' quality of life. While the foundations of a city include buildings and streets and infrastructure, the foundations of community are found in connection, inclusion, and opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive, both individually and together. In the neighborhood services CSA, residents learn to read, to Zumba, to swim, to 3D print, to upskill for their next job, or even to apply online. They grow with nutrition, with therapeutics, fresh air, and opportunities for youth to lead the way. And they thrive by maintaining their neighborhoods or simply finally having a room of one's own. The programs provided by the CSA create the net of services that engage and support our residents, creating meaning and authentic connection from shared knowledge, shared spaces, and shared experiences. And like community, this CSA is more than the sum of its parts. Yet some positive changes to the housing and code enforcement budgets, both of which have additional funding budgeted in other city service areas. First, blight on private property. Code enforcement is pursuing strategies to address complaints more rapidly and effectively. Second, graffiti. We will add graffiti as one of the objects detected by our limited deployment of AI object detection cameras. And third, illegal dumping. Beautify San Jose and environmental services staff are pursuing strategies to increase usage of legal waste disposal methods and enforce against illegal dumpers. The CSA priorities for service delivery going into fiscal year 26-27 include stewardship of public spaces, encampment management and cleanup services, high-quality library access collections and programs, continuing contracted veterinary services and care for animals through animal care and services programs, continuing to implement recommendations from code enforcement's operational assessment, and continuing to optimize the shelter system management. Okay, significant actions in the proposed budget include following the transition of animal care services to PRS department. We are also making an additional investment in low-cost spay and neuter services at the animal care center. Assuming the passage of the proposed transit occupancy tax, there will be no major impacts to park maintenance, which therefore allows new investments in fire prevention in Alam Rock Park and open spaces. Savings will be entailed in the optimization of the beautify SJ program. There is a reduction to the rec preschool program. Salary savings associated with the temporary closure of the Biblioteca Latinoamericana Branch Library for an upcoming renovation. We also have reductions of positions that would result in the closure of public access in the California Room Special Collection space at the Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Library.