SAN JOSE (BCN and KQED) — The San Jose City Council on Tuesday approved a funding strategy that backers claim would add 141 new police officer positions and restore other city services but would require tens of millions in revenue the city does not yet have.
The council voted 10-1, with Councilman Ash Kalra opposed, for a proposal by Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilman Sam Liccardo that would raise the number of San Jose police officers from 1,109 in the current budget to 1,250 in four years.
The proposal seeks to investigate options to return city services to January 2011 levels, including restoring 10 percent pay cuts given to city employees, with police staffing the highest priority.
Reed and Liccardo also proposed restoring funding levels for fire, library and community center services.
But last week, as the San Jose Mercury News reported, San Jose's police union slammed the plan. From the Merc ...
The San Jose officers' union, which has argued the city must restore the 10 percent pay cuts over the next year to keep cops from fleeing to higher-paying departments elsewhere, remained unimpressed.
Jim Unland, president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association, called the proposal "nothing more than convoluted rhetoric" from a mayor and council he accuses of "dismantling of our public safety infrastructure."
"These two politicians have zero credibility when it comes to public safety and their latest plan is full of empty promises," Unland said. "Reed and Liccardo gambled with our residents' safety and lost, resulting in skyrocketing crime, unsafe neighborhoods and officers leaving in droves." Full article