San José City Councilmembers, city staff and the community discussed temporarily closing State Route 87 and cutting funding from Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood services to increase funding for city worker compensation and benefits.
State Route 87
San José City Councilmembers, city staff and the community discussed temporarily closing State Route 87 and cutting funding from Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood services to increase funding for city-worker compensation and benefits.
Caltrans workers announced a project to close State Route 87 to repave the entire highway.
Workers from Caltrans will repave the highway from the exit at Blossom Hill Road to the undercrossing at Julian Street, according to their presentation.
The project on State Route 87 started in July and will be complete around March 2025 and is estimated to cost $69,630,000, according to the same presentation.
The project will also enhance 28 curb ramps at six intersections and resurface a 2.9 mile long bike line that is projected to run parallel along the highway, according to the presentation.
Caltrans construction manager, Scott McCrank, shared details on when the highway will be closed and what detours will be available for commuters.
“It’s important to note that one direction of 87 will be closed for each particular weekend,” McCrank said.
He said the northbound side of State Route 87 will be closed on Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. to Sept. 25 at 5 a.m., and the southside of the highway will be closed between Oct. 20 at 9 p.m. to Oct. 23. at 5 a.m..
McCrank said the highway will be closed to traffic for a total of 56 hours as a result.
He also said closing State Route 87 will improve safety for both Caltrans workers and public commuters.
“It’s safer for the public too,” McCrank said. “You’re not dealing with a lot of lane closures. Trucks coming in and out of work zones.”
McCrank said closing the highway will help Caltrans workers complete construction on the highway three months faster.
During the weekends State Route 87 will be closed and commuters will be able to choose between four different highways to use as detours.
These four highways are State Route 17, Interstate 280, U.S. Route 101 and State Route 85.
City Worker Benefits v.s. Resident Services
San José City Councilmembers voted 9-2 to move forward with a motion to cut funding from Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood services to move more funding into compensation and benefits for city workers.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jennifer Schembri, director of Employee Relations and Human Resources, announced a proposal to increase funding for city-worker benefits by cutting funding from other services provided by the city.
City workers representing employees from the fire department, the police department, and more were represented by six different labor unions, according to a presentation from employees in Employee Relations and Human Resources.
Schembri said the city and the six labor unions reached an impasse on June 19 until where both sides reached tentative agreements on Aug. 15.
She said these agreements included discussions on having a maximum total of 320 hours paid time leave, a 6% raise in pensions for the 2023-2024 fiscal year and eight hours of personal leave to celebrate holidays not observed by the city.
“There’s a lot more contained in the memo,” Schembri said, referring to a memorandum signed by Councilmembers Pam Foley, David Cohen and Sergio Jimenez.
Laura Stuchinsky, a lead for the Emerging Mobility Program in San José for the Department of Transportation, said she urges city councilmembers to vote in support of moving forward with moving the funding listed in the agreements towards employee benefits, compensation and other demands.
Stuchinsky said staff turnover is still very high for city workers and there continues to be a lot of vacancies.
She said she recently watched one of her colleagues struggle to temporarily leave work after becoming a first time dad.
“There's no one to back him up when he's out of the office,” Stuchinsky said. “He felt [it] would require fewer hours away from his family if he returned to [work] quickly.”
She said her coworker is very responsible and hard working, but he shouldn’t have to do his job at the expense of his family.
“It's a false dichotomy to say that paying city employees more will undermine essential services such as libraries, community centers, and streets.”
Jim Shannon, the budget director for San José, said the union is asking the city to use $2.8 million from the general fund to add to city worker financial benefits and compensations for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
Shannon said to support these demands, the city will have to make adjustments to their budget to make sure that all ongoing costs are replaced by a supportive amount of ongoing revenue.
“Reducing the budget is never an easy process,” Shannon said. “It's always, you know, difficult conversations and something we take very, very seriously.”
Shannon said funding for a few residential services provided by San José Park, Recreation and Neighborhood services will be affected, including funding Viva CalleSJ.
Viva CalleSJ is a free recreation program run by the city that closes off streets to host community events to encourage community members to explore San José, according to its website.
Shannon said the city will also have to cancel around 25 events hosted by Viva CalleSJ to adjust for the loss of money in the budget.
Jeremy Corrales, a grant analyst for San José Park and Recreation, said he is opposed to cutting funding from the program.
Corrales said he has been a resident of San José for his entire life and an employee for the city for almost a decade, but sees the support for the proposal as “discouraging.”
“It’s really disheartening having to fight so hard to make a livable wage and to be able to live here in the city that I call my home,” Corrales said. “It’s even more discouraging knowing that, you know, we're trying to cut programming that enriches the lives of residents here in San José.”
Cindy Harlan, the union president for Municipal Employees’ Federation (MEF) Local 101 said although she appreciates the city for being willing to negotiate to the labor unions to avoid a strike, she also feels disheartened from the discussion.
She said San José mayor Matt Mahan should feel shameful for not supporting the proposal and missed an opportunity to mend fences and build a rapport with the labor unions.
“Instead you chose to pit city workers against citizens of San José,” Harlan said. “This agreement is a step in ensuring that essential services like public safety, parks, libraries, public works are adequately staffed to meet the needs of San José residents.”
Harlan said the labor unions will now focus on the upcoming mayoral election and support a mayor who appreciates and invests in city workers.
Mahan said he recognizes that the cost of living in San José is incredibly high.
He also said he agrees that the city should offer generous raises.
“There is no intention of demonizing workers or labor unions,” Mahan said.
However, Mahan also said his concern is that the city has a finite budget and will have to make significant trade-offs.
Councilmember Foley, who signed a memorandum along with councilmembers Cohen and Jimenez to support cutting funding from other parts of the city’s budget in order to meet the labor union demands without cutting funding from Viva CalleSJ, said cuts are going to have to be made to the budget regardless of the council’s decisions.
“Wherever they come [from], I don't know,” Foley said. “Hopefully we can keep them as far away from residents’ services as possible.”
