Lamebrain politicos push flawed proposals

Submitted by Jim Unland, President, San Jose POA: One San Jose City Council member wants to change the City Charter to set aside 40 percent of the budget for police. Another took 14,000 words to spell out his flawed plan to save the Police Department. San Jose doesn’t need a budget shuffle, and it doesn’t take 14,000 words to save the police force. It only takes three: Fix Measure B.

The impact of Measure B has been devastating. Emergency response times are at historic highs, crime rates continue to rise and our newest officers are leaving for other agencies before they even complete training. From the last police academy, only 25 of the 50 hired remain. With a doubling of the number of officers eligible to retire at the end of this year, the problems will get worse.

Measure B provides new officers the worst pension plan in the state. It comes with no guarantee that it will still be there when an officer retires, and it provides so little protection for an officer injured in the line of duty that officers have had to buy their own disability insurance.

San Jose council members running for mayor are trying to re-brand themselves as public safety advocates. Sam Liccardo has his crime plan manifesto, Pierluigi Oliverio has his 40 percent budget gimmick and Madison Nguyen wants to restore the burglary unit because she is now hearing from the affluent areas of San Jose.

These proposals are all mayoral political stunts.

Claiming to be leaders who can restore neighborhood safety while ignoring their own culpability must cause these politicians heartburn, since they all voted for policies that have made us less safe.

Why is it that just a few months before an election we are hearing their ideas for rebuilding our public safety infrastructure? What have they been doing the past several years?

Liccardo touts his idea to magically hire more police. We can’t. The few officers who do get hired aren’t staying. No amount of money thrown at recruiting and retaining officers can fix the root cause of why the exodus continues. The reason is Measure B.

Council members Rose Herrera, Liccardo, Nguyen and Oliverio asked voters to support Measure B, promising it would restore city services. How’s that worked out?

The council members running for mayor know that our recruitment and retention struggles are caused by Measure B. To add insult to injury, Liccardo, Oliverio, Mayor Chuck Reed and five other council members enjoy a CalPERS pension that is more lucrative than what they voted to give new police officers.

The problem Herrera, Nguyen, Liccardo and Oliverio face is that their desire to be the next mayor prevents them from admitting they got it wrong. In their minds, it would be political suicide to ask the voters to fix Measure B. Admitting mistakes is not how one wins elections.

Another idea being bandied about and apparently now tacitly supported by the Chamber of Commerce is to raise San Jose’s sales tax to “fix” public safety. This idea is irresponsible and unfair to residents because it fails to address the root problem.

Unless Measure B is fixed to include legal pension cost savings, a competitive second tier pension plan and disability protection for those injured in the line of duty, taxes should not be raised.

We are losing officers faster than we can replace them. A 40 percent budget set aside or a 14,000 word crime plan won’t change this fact or make San Jose neighborhoods safer. To accomplish that, Measure B must be fixed.

Jim Unland is president of the San Jose Police Officers Association. This op-ed piece was originally published in the San Jose Mercury News.