Our community deserves accurate information. Since San José Spotlight refused to correct factual errors in the article below, the City Manager and City Attorney set the record straight today at our council meeting.

It’s concerning that this outlet and reporter posted this article riddled with inaccuracies before the deadline they gave us to respond. It’s unethical that they published after we confirmed with them that we would get them accurate information from our City Attorney before that deadline. It seems that Spotlight was more interested in hitting “publish” in time for a political rally scheduled before the council meeting than they were in getting to the truth. We need to be able to have an honest dialogue about how we can push our city forward – creating fabricated stories threatens our ability to do so.

We all need to have our eyes wide open as we face the most difficult fiscal shortfall in years. To do that, we need to start with the same basic understanding of facts. And they are as follows:

1. As Mayor, it’s my job to write the March Budget Message — in which I laid out a clear menu of options for how we can close our $55M shortfall. The City Manager uses that document — which was unanimously approved by the Council — and her expertise to create a Proposed Operating Budget that is balanced. She has decided that the best way to address our shortfall and the mandate from the State Water Board (more on that below) is to reallocate a portion of Measure E dollars. She has found alternate funding streams to preserve $20-40M for affordable housing in this budget.

2. As our City Attorney conveyed, the $66,000 per pollutant per day is not a figure that I simply pulled out of a hat nor had any influence on. The screenshot below is directly from the EPA. We have had our Direct Discharge Plan rejected 3 times and are at risk of being in violation of the Clean Water Act – which could result in our Stormwater Permit being revoked. The EPA delegates the regulation of the Clean Water Act to the Water Board, and if the Water Board revokes our stormwater permit – which will happen if we don’t address the pollution entering our creeks and rivers (88% of which comes from people living along our waterways) – we can be sued by literally anyone in the US. We have faced litigation like this in the past (in 2015, the City entered into a $100M+ legal settlement related to waterway pollution) and we know that we will again unless we take measures to address this environmental crisis head on. More on that here:

3. Measure E, a direct transfer tax approved by the voters in 2020, is not an affordable housing fund. It is general tax revenue and the exact ballot language is as follows: “To fund general City of San José services, including affordable housing for seniors, veterans, disabled, and low-income families, and helping homeless residents move into shelters/permanent housing…” The Council voted in 2022 to put 75% of the dollars toward affordable housing. 25% of it goes toward interim housing and prevention. The Council can vote to reallocate these dollars on any given Tuesday. They are meant to help us get people indoors. And we need to use them to meet the moment.

4. The article states that $15M of Measure E funds will go toward abatements (“sweeps”) and shelter. In the City Manager’s proposed budget, every single penny of these dollars will be used to provide outreach and sanitation services to people living along our waterways and move 500 people into safe, clean managed places.

This chart, directly from the EPA, showing the $66k figure was shared with @SJSpotlight and @brandonphooo

@SJSpotlight Maybe your city manager needs to be replaced if she was not able to get these things figured from previous years. The homeless services audit just showed how things are mismanaged in SJ. The plan to clean the creeks was rejected 3x by the water board.

@SJSpotlight They go after the one guy making a difference. FakeNews for clicks.

@SJSpotlight The Spotlight article did mention the $66K federal fine (FDA.) The point that's lost with the Spotlight (perhaps unintentionally) & Matt (probably intentionally) is why he had let the campings grow until it manifested out of his control. If only had Matt had fewer photo ops...