Sports and infrastructure will be Santa Clara’s focus over the next year.
At the Santa Clara City Council’s priority setting session last month, the council emphasized the need to ensure big-ticket events at Levi’s Stadium go off without a hitch and that the city spends voter-approved bond money responsibly.
Super Bowl LX and FIFA World Cup games are coming to Levi’s Stadium in 2026. Meanwhile, a $400 million bond, passed by voters in November last year, will help give the city’s crumbling infrastructure a facelift.
The day-long workshop was designed to get city employees and the council on the same page, hashing out areas of alignment.
After last year’s session produced 43 priorities, City Manager Jovan Grogan aimed to get a more concrete understanding of the council’s goals. City employees completed five of those 43 priorities.
Council Member Suds Jain said he wanted to focus on more “granular” priorities instead of “apple-pie” priorities such as “be fiscally responsible.”
Council Member Kevin Park shared the sentiment.
“We talk about what we would like to do, but talking about what we’d like to do and putting everything in a bucket doesn’t really prioritize anything,” he said.
Part of the issue and something that Vice Mayor Kelly Cox said she would like the council to work on is assuming good intent instead of focusing on “catchphrases.”
Per last year’s session, the council’s priorities fall under four pillars: government services, infrastructure, quality of life and community.
Grogan pointed to several key accomplishments in each category. Silicon Valley Power secured $130 million in debt financing. The city updated its zoning code, its permitting process, reinstated park policy patrols and ambulance services.
Further, the city has increased employee engagement, bolstering morale through such initiatives such as reinstating the library cafe, employee of the month and bring-a-child-to-work day.
Construction on SVP substations and the continued system expansion, a new bike plan and community events such as the library’s Comic-con, the Art & Wine Festival, K-pop festival were also noteworthy.
Finally, the opening of the city’s Magical Bridge playground, park rehabilitation, increased voter engagement and the police department’s BRAVE program aim to increase residents’ quality of life.
Many initiatives are unfunded, Grogan said. New initiatives slated to get underway this year include expansion of the fiber network, streamlining the permit process, a citywide shuttle program and a nexus study to reclaim downtown.
While Grogan said the city aims to reduce the costs through grants and partnerships, the unfunded total for new initiatives is $7.3 million.
Many public comments circled around rebuilding downtown Santa Clara. Many members of Reclaiming Our Downtown turned out to urge the council to prioritize the effort.
“I am getting real concerned with this council,” Ray Gamma, 95, said. “Please, please, please let’s get the ball rolling. Let’s get this thing done and over with before I die. I know it is right around the corner.”
Donna West said she wants the council to prioritize the community’s identity. She said she was “embarrassed” how long it has taken the city to get going on revitalizing downtown.
“This is ridiculous. They rebuilt Hiroshima in 12 years,” she said.
Goals for the upcoming year include cleaning up the city charter and taking more proactive steps toward economic development, Grogan said. The city’s internship program launches this year, as well as SVP’s customer rebate program and outage management system.
Further, capital improvement projects at the library and incorporating artificial intelligence to make city operations more efficient are also slated.
Grogan also detailed the city’s budget forecast. While the city’s financial situation is better than it has been the past few years, Grogan said the city is still unable to unfreeze many positions frozen during the pandemic.
The city does not have enough money to add new positions or services that are important to the council and residents, he added.
“Everything we need to do isn’t even on the balance sheet now. We have known-knowns that aren’t in our forecast,” Grogan said. “We have known-unknowns where we know the thing is broke, but yet to study it to put a number to it.”
Upcoming contract negotiations and Santa Clara having a slightly higher than state average pension liability could further complicate matters, he said.
Moving forward into the next year, the council detailed some things it would like to see happen.
Jain said he would like to see more of a commitment to the poor, specifically the homeless population. He also said he would like to see the city’s greenhouse gas emissions dashboard get off the ground this year.
Cox said she would like city employees to work to improve Santa Clara’s reputation.
Park said keeping Santa Clara employees constantly busy is a recipe for ensuring new initiatives never get off the ground.
“If you are 100% full all the time, there is no chance for problems,” he said. “There is no opportunity for problems to get solved. There is no time for improvements.”
The council will have budget study sessions May 13 and 27. The bi-annual budget will come before the council June 10.
Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com
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The base annual salary for regular police officers (not sergeants, lieutenants, captains, or chiefs) averaged $174k in Santa Clara, $156k in Sunnyvale, and $146k in Campbell. That equates to Santa Clara police officers receiving 18.8% more per year than Campbell officers and 11.6% more than Sunnyvale officers. Remember, each of Sunnyvale’s public safety officers must maintain certification as both a peace officer and a firefighter, providing their residents with a higher level of response capability.
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According to the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Police Officers Association and the City of Santa Clara: Santa Clara police officers are to be paid at least 5% higher than comparative agencies, and, if paid more, SCPD salaries cannot be adjusted down to meet the average+5%. In addition to their minimum 5% padding, SCPD also receives a 3.1% increase to annual salary and hourly for overtime. Read the entire MOU here: https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/78622/638023094556770000
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“While the city’s financial situation is better than it has been the past few years, Grogan said the city is still unable to unfreeze many positions frozen during the pandemic.”
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If the City of Santa Clara were to freeze base salaries for police officers, it would take officers in Sunnyvale and Campbell until 2029 and 2031, respectively, to catch up to SCPD base salaries (assuming a 3% Y.O.Y. annual increase). In that time, SCPD officers would still make more money than their neighboring contemporaries, and, if applied to all ranks in SCPD, the City would realize more than $7,300,000 in savings Jovan Grogan says projects and staff positions are unfunded by. Read here from this past December, David Alexander’s report on high Santa Clara salaries – https://www.svvoice.com/crunching-the-numbers-on-santa-claras-salaries-spending/
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I’m sure residents like Mr. Gamma and Ms. West would agree that the above scenario of freezing police salaries through at least the end of 2027 to be palatable in funding city projects while ensuring pay is competitive for police officers.