Dec 18, 2017
City of San Jose Approve Mayor’s appointments to Council Committees, Commissions, and intergovernmental bodies Council will consider approving the Mayor’s appointment to various council standing committees and assignments to boards and commissions. The Mayor’s proposed appointments to Council committees (Chair, Vice Chair, and 3 additional members) are as follows: Rules: Liccardo Carrasco Jones Khamis Davis Public Safety, Finance, &…
Dec 12, 2017
On November 14th, the San Jose City Council by a 6-5 majority voted against reducing the automatic allowable annual increase for rent controlled units. Despite the fact that other major cities in the Bay Area limit increases to a fraction of the CPI, tenants in San Jose will face increases of 5% a year. The City Auditor had documented the…
Dec 11, 2017
City of San Jose Approve changes to Affordable Housing Impact Fees and Inclusionary Housing Ordinance due to AB 1505 (“Palmer Fix”) Recently, the State Legislature adopted AB 1505, also known as the “Palmer Fix,” which allowed local jurisdiction to implement inclusionary housing requirements for rental and for-sale housing developments. This change in state law means potential changes to the…
Dec 6, 2017
Before a packed City Hall chambers, Council Members in the City of Santa Clara voted unanimously to pass a package of policies detailing new requirements for supporting affordable housing contributions as a part of future residential and non-residential development projects in the city. Testimony included dozens of construction workers who live and work in Santa Clara making a plea to…
Dec 4, 2017
Santa Clara County Approve amendments to the Transient Occupancy Tax The Board of Supervisors will consider approving amendments to: (1) conform the County’s transient occupancy tax (“TOT”) ordinance with amendments to state law (2) incorporate language from voter ratification of the TOT in 1988 (Measure A, November 8, 1988) regarding how proceeds of the TOT are to be used (3)…
Nov 21, 2017
Last night, Google representatives skipped a third consecutive community town hall meeting to discuss the impact of the tech giant’s proposed mega-campus development in San Jose. San Jose residents and community leaders gathered to discuss the development that would bring up to 20,000 Google employees, plus an estimated 8-10,000 service workers, to the downtown area. The town hall meeting, which…
Nov 20, 2017
City of San Jose Approving five-year airport concession agreement with PRI-San Jose LLC On April 19, 2017, the City released an RFP for a prime operator to develop, design, fund, construct, operate, and manage a Retail Merchandising Unit (“RMU”) Concession Program at the Airport. Nine companies expressed interest, but only one, PRI, submitted a proposal. On August 25, 2017, the…
Nov 15, 2017
Yesterday, after more than 6 hours of public comment, the San Jose City Council voted to prioritize landlord profits over the needs of San Jose’s most vulnerable tenants. Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilmembers Johnny Khamis, Lan Diep, Dev Davis, Chappie Jones and Tam Nguyen voted to keep annual rent increases at a rate of 5%, opposing a proposal to instead…
Nov 9, 2017
SJUSD Trustee Paymon Zarghami has recently become embroiled in a controversy regarding his treatment of a district parent who questioned his apparent lack of transparency and possible conflict of interest on the Perseverance Charter School petition vote. The Trustee’s conduct resulted in a complaint filed by the district parent. The parent alleged that on both May 4 during the Board meeting…
Nov 8, 2017
By a unanimous vote, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to create an new Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, aimed at helping educate workers on their rights and helping tackle wage theft, discrimination and sexual harassment across the County. Dozens of supporters from a wide range of organizations came out to support the creation of the office including…