May 1, 2007

Oliverio recommends pilot park maintenance program

Proposal is controversial

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Pierluigi Oliverio, the new city council member for District 6, announced a pilot maintenance proposal for the Rose Garden that has created heated discussions at city hall and throughout District 6.

Oliverio’s plan, announ-ced via a press release on April 17 and a press conference on April 18 at the Rose Garden, would allow private contractors to bid a certain amount—using the city’s line item maintenance budget of $86,000 for the regional park as a ceiling—to provide maintenance for the Rose Garden. He presented the plan at the April 18 Rules Committee meeting, which put it on the agenda for the May 1 city council meeting during the afternoon.

However, Councilmem-bers Pete Constant and Judy Chirco asked that the item be deferred until the May 15 evening session so that it could be publicized, provide adequate outreach and allow the public and city workers to attend and speak on the subject.

While it’s an idea that many in San Jose support, it’s also a conundrum. The parks maintenance staff is unionized and the city requires that private contractors provide wages equal to what union workers receive, so some wonder where the savings will be. It’s also puzzling because for the first time in at least five years, the proposed parks budget is being increased after being cut to the bone to provide for other city services.

Campaign item
Five years ago, before the dot-com bust and the related cutbacks to the city budget, the Rose Garden had several full-time workers. Today staff takes care of the park a few times per week. And, as parkland has increased throughout the city, so have the maintenance chores, although the staff has dwindled to about half what it was a few years ago.

Oliverio told the Times that the issue came up during his campaign. “When you’re walking door-to-door in the same neighborhood and almost everyone mentions the same thing, you know there’s a problem that needs to be solved,” he said. “The people who live in the Rose Garden want it fixed and they don’t care who does it. I thought we should look at it creatively and possibly have the maintenance done by a private contractor, who would be held accountable for maintaining the park.”

Oliverio said two members of the Parks Commission, Melanie Richardson and Mary Ann Ruiz, “are supportive of the project.”

However, Ruiz, a past vice chair of the commission, remembers the discussion differently. She said that she, Vice Chair Richardson and Chair Helen Chapman had just completed a meeting with another council member and on leaving, met Oliverio in the hall.

“We sat down and talked with him for a few minutes,” she said, “but we didn’t have a substantive or meaningful discussion. He mentioned his idea, and we said we thought it was great that he and other city leaders are looking at it. But we didn’t have a meaningful discussion about it. At that time, we didn’t know enough about it.”

She and Chapman said that park maintenance has long been a big problem, but both said they are concerned that increased maintenance should not be for just one park.

“There’s lots of regional parks,” said Chapman. “There’s Prusch Farms, Alum Rock, Happy Hollow, Lake Cunningham, Almaden Lake and Overfelt Gardens. And, that doesn’t include all the city parks. All of these parks need care and attention. You can’t have five years of budget cuts and lack of maintenance personnel and have the parks remain in great condition.

“The Parks Commission wants the city to adequately fund maintenance for all the parks and make parks and recreation services a priority for citizens,” she said.

Willow Glen homeowners upset
Once the proposal aired, residents in Willow Glen used the area’s e-list to discuss the issue. Many appeared to be upset noting that, for example, Bramhall Park on Willow needed maintenance too, and questioned when that park and others in the area would also receive what they needed.

Oliverio said he’d spoken to some of the e-list members. “When I’ve explained it to them, the overall amount of people are supportive,” he said. “This is a pilot program for one year, if the city council likes the results then we can talk about expanding it.”

Chapman noted that the upcoming city budget has increased funds for added maintenance. Also, she suggested that some of the money in the park’s trust fund might be able to be used to better maintain the parks.

“Currently the commission is looking at several different proposals,” she said. “One of these is to work with the charter and take park maintenance funds out of taxes. Another proposal is to increase the construction and conveyance tax, of which 15 percent goes to maintenance. If we increase it by five cents, it would allow more than $800,000 for maintenance, and not increase taxes but would decrease the money available for capital projects.”

A third proposal would develop an Adopt a Park for the city increasing the volunteer programs. “County volunteers contribute 30,000 hours for trail cleanups, there’s no reason why such a program couldn’t be adopted by the city,” Chapman said. As of mid-January, six parks in various districts had adoptions pending.

The parks commission is holding a joint meeting with the county to discuss such arrangements on May 16 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.