San Jose Officials Warn of Massive Police and Fire Layoffs

Mercury News.com ^ | Feb. 17, 2011 | Sean Webby

[katiedidit1]

Sketching out a worst-case scenario of San Jose's budget meltdown, city officials warned this week that they could lay off as many as 349 police officers and 145 firefighters, slashing close to a quarter of the city's public safety employees.

The city is also looking at millions of dollars in other cuts, including shutting off neighborhood

streetlights for much of the night and eliminating some gang-prevention programs.

There has never been a major layoff of police officers in the city's modern history. But last year San Jose laid off 49 firefighters, and this is the second year in a row the Police Department has faced layoffs.

[B Knotts]

Bet they could trim this a bit:

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/esd/

[B Knotts]

They can't pay cops and firemen, but they are trying to hire a community organizer:

https://cityjobs.sanjoseca.gov/psc/prod/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL

[wac3rd]

You are 100% right on. The retired Barney Fife’s $12,000 a month pension and no co-pay healtcare benefit plan stays in place, they just cut the cops and firemen on the street, now.

[Leisler]

Why do we even have libraries? It can’t be for the ‘utes. They couldn’t read a book if you machine pressed it into their skulls.

Libraries used to be private. You wanted to join, you paid a fee. If you wanted to keep a bit of your money, you didn’t pay and didn’t get charged and didn’t get books. You know, like a Big Mac at McDonalds. Pay=get. No pay=no get. Want? Get money, pay. Simple concept, really.

The libraries I go to are just so old cheap readers get others in the town to buy their trash fiction books for them. Let them buy their own, form a club, what ever.

[Leisler]

That’s the future, only more so.

BTW, retired Barney Fife has moved to low tax Texas, or Florida to get away from the high local and state taxes.

[Blood of Tyrants]

But there is no way in hell they are going to lay off the Sub Secretary to the Assistant to the Director of Office of Chicken Excretion Eradication! THAT person is just too important to daily operations!

[sappy]

Correct. The taxes here are ridiculous. Our Santa Clara County sales tax is 9.25%. Gas prices are getting close to $4 per gallon again, the cost of living in terms of housing costs and energy? Forgettaboutit!!!! There is no where else to go. The city must start living within its means like it’s citizens. Streetlights? hell, those are so dim anyway you can’t even tell they are on half the time. why even have them? I have security lights on my house and headlights as has been mentioned, on my vehicle (latest in technology here in Silicon Valley) :)

[BikerJoe]

Why do they never lay off parks and recreation

In our state, usually the state parks are the first things to close. Tell me again why you need to close trees and grass and dirt?

[El Cid]

Why do they never lay off parks and recreation, water and sewer, garbage, librarians, custodians and clerks or other city workers? Always police and fire...................

I, for one, would want my water and sewer services to be the last to get shutdown...

[wac3rd]

Si

[Carry_Okie]

When there’s no money, there is no money.

With mere police sergeants in San Jose making a cool quarter of a million a year, there's plenty of money.

[teenyelliott]

Typical leftie scare tactic. They COULD lay off every city admin, parks department people, go to skeleton crews for every nonessential department.

Instead, they attempt to scare the public into continuing to pour more tax dollars into the city, or their safety will be compromised.

Safety is the last area where cuts should be made, but it is generally the first place they strike. Purely a psychological play on the sheeple.

[skeeter]

Libraries are increasingly an anachronism. A book on Kindle costs $10 & anything can be researched on the Internet.

Yet that didn't stop my south bay town from investing MILLIONS in a brand spanking new library building. I don't know what they'll do with the old one (built in the 60s) maybe the seniors can use it to learn Zumba dance.

Wait, they already have a place for that.

I hate bureaucrats.

[Carry_Okie]

These guys are crying poverty???

[teenyelliott]

Baloney. If this were my town, I would demand cuts to other areas.

[rcrngroup]

Good one San Jose, you socialist piece of crap city. Layoff police & fire fighters, but keep socialist commie teachers & admin positions running at full tilt. That way when the city erupts in further crime & devastation, you can blame the Repubs or conservatives for not ante’ing up more money with more taxes. Guess what? Anyone with half a brain who can afford to is leaving socialist CA and heading for a less socialist state to get out that hell hole.

[Arkinsaw]

This scenario has been mentioned numerous times by other posters. When faced with budgetary constraints, they don't slash pensions, bennies, and bloated bureaucracies... they cut essential services to “teach” the insolent public a lesson.

And the police usually go right along with being patsies. It looks like they would get tired of being trotted out like that.

[rcrngroup]

Good one San Jose, you socialist piece of crap city. Layoff police & fire fighters, but keep socialist commie teachers & admin positions running at full tilt. That way when the city erupts in further crime & devastation, you can blame the Repubs or conservatives for not ante’ing up more money with more taxes. Guess what? Anyone with half a brain who can afford to is leaving socialist CA and heading for a less socialist state to get out that hell hole.

[fella]

But none of the big fat cats at city hall are getting laid off.Only the necessary services will be effected so as to rile up the citizens to agree to higher taxes. All the unnesscary waste and corruption will remain.

[fella]

But none of the big fat cats at city hall are getting laid off.Only the necessary services will be effected so as to rile up the citizens to agree to higher taxes. All the unnesscary waste and corruption will remain.