A day after a gunman opened fire on a crowd enjoying the Gilroy Garlic Festival, tributes poured in for the rampage’s youngest victims — Stephen Romero, 6, and Keyla Salazar, 13. Katiuska Pimental Vargas, a community organizer with San Jose-based nonprofit Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) posted on Facebook that her niece —...
San Jose City Council: Who pays their staff the most?
Who pays interns? Also working on the floor is a few dozen interns – but they’re not all paid. Most of the councilors without paid interns, however, said that they often offer interns salaries if they wish to continue past their internship period. A spokesperson for Liccardo confirmed that while his office offers year-round paid fellowship programs,...
Despite raise, San Jose lawmakers struggle to survive
Months before a city commission voted to raise San Jose lawmakers’ salaries by tens of thousands of dollars, Councilmember Sergio Jimenez struggled to make ends meet in Silicon Valley despite serving on the council of America’s 10th largest city. He started looking for a second gig to help supplement his family’s income. Now, Jimenez works as...
San Jose approves prevailing wages for private construction projects
While the unlicensed Silvery Towers subcontractor Job Torres Hernandez received his sentence in federal court for harboring undocumented workers in slave-like conditions, San Jose lawmakers on Tuesday passed a law to prevent construction companies from exploiting low-wage workers on private construction projects that receive tax breaks. Spurring from negotiations with labor unions more than a...
San Jose lawmakers narrowly approve budget amid inequity concerns
San Jose City Councilmembers on Tuesday narrowly voted to approve Mayor Sam Liccardo’s June budget message, despite criticism that it didn’t go far enough to address racial and economic inequities in the city. The split vote marked the first time in recent history that nearly half the City Council voted against a mayor’s fiscal budget, which is historically...
San Jose lawmakers call on mayor to address inequity
Five progressive San Jose lawmakers on Monday criticized Mayor Sam Liccardo for not going far enough in his proposed budget to address inequities that plague Silicon Valley’s poorest neighborhoods. “San Jose’s working families face issues of poverty, blight, crime and neglect that sometimes go back generations,'” said Councilmember Sylvia Arenas during a news conference at...
San Jose lawmakers expected to approve city budget
After months of preparation, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday is expected to approve the proposed $4.3 billion budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Since March, Mayor Sam Liccardo has released two budget messages that help shape how the city spends public dollars. The mayor’s first message focused on limiting spending to brace for a...
In split vote, San Jose lawmakers decide to study potential 2020 tax measure
Despite warnings from Councilmembers Johnny Khamis and Sergio Jimenez that San Jose residents are becoming overtaxed, a split City Council on Tuesday decided to move forward with researching a 2020 ballot measure to help build affordable housing and shelter the city’s homeless. Last month, San Jose administrators studied three potential tax measures – two of them were...
San Jose mayor focuses on equity and blight in budget message
As San Jose lawmakers prepare to approve next year’s budget, Mayor Sam Liccardo announced in his budget message Monday that he wants to distribute public dollars equitably – focusing limited funding and resources on areas with the greatest needs. “All of us should agree that across several city program areas, high-poverty neighborhoods need greater resources,” Liccardo wrote. “In some...
San Jose mayor one step closer to suing over overnight trains
In an effort to combat the blaring horns of trains that have been waking San Jose residents from slumber, Mayor Sam Liccardo, along with four of his council colleagues, have signed on to explore legal options against Union Pacific Railroad and consider designating the land along the rail line as public open space. According to...