☆ Advice to Mahan: Bank on the basics

Ahead of SJ Mayor Mahan's State of the City address, Opp Now contributors Jon Coupal and Irene Smith share their exclusive suggestions on what he discusses. And, spoiler alert: they're hoping Mahan focuses on how we're fixing gov't inefficiencies, limiting core services, and (you guessed it) spending within our means.

Jon Coupal, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association president: I think we would give him the same advice that we would give to any mayor:

1. Focus on the fundamentals of municipal services. Garbage collection, sidewalks, fire protection, and police services may not be sexy, but they are what citizens want.

2. Be prepared to stand up to public sector labor.

3. Be wary of taking on more local debt, whether g.o. bonds, pension obligation bonds, or other esoteric debt instruments like “certificates of participation.”

Irene Smith, former San Jose councilmember candidate: We should be focused on realizing efficiencies and cuts in current government, not seek more taxpayer largess. We need to: prioritize core services, deprioritize secondary services, and eliminate failed programs; hold ourselves to a much greater level of accountability over outsourced vendors; and create a task force to eliminate city/county redundancies.

Go Deeper:

• Is San Jose’s budget crisis really an opportunity for systemic change? (4/4)
• Does SJ's City Charter give priority to core city services?
• Back to basics: Can quality of life improve if cities get out of the way? (1/3)

San Jose has 98 core services and 264 supporting programs. By limiting core services, we make better decisions based on priorities, we have better accounting and monitoring of performance, and there is a unifying clarity of purpose. Our core services should be limited to: police/fire, waste removal, streets/traffic, emergency planning and urban planning.

Also:

• Introduce a zero-based budgeting pilot: one department per year.

• Expand Mahan’s Pay for Performance model to nonprofits with which the city does business.

• Reject all new taxes and bonds at city, county, or state level —which cause higher costs of living.

Our failure to create an ecosystem that allows affordable housing to be built quickly and driven by market forces is the #1 failure of almost every city in California, including SJ.

While subsidized housing has a place — as Mayor Mahan correctly states — “we will never subsidize our way out of this problem.”

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