Hello Neighbors! Boy has it been a soggy and wet past couple of weeks. I don't know about you, but I sure am ready for some sun and warmer weather.

Thank you to the many neighborhood association leaders who volunteered their time (by spending half of a Saturday) to represent District 1 at the Mayor's annual Neighborhood Association/Youth Commission Priority Setting Session on Saturday, January 23, 2010. It is through their efforts as community leaders that West San José continues to improve and thrive. An impressive half of all the neighborhood associations in our district participated in this important City forum and had the opportunity to provide input on the city's budgeting process. We had 16 participants representing 14 different neighborhood and community groups. Feedback from these discussions will help determine what the priorities should be for the City as we begin to prepare for a new budget season and face a $100 million structural budget shortfall. Thank you again to the following attendees:
Mack Johansen, Blackford NAC
Charles Lauer, District 1 Leadership Group
Bob Levy, Easterbrook Neighborhood Association
Betty Kabanek, Eden Neighborhood Association
Richard Kabanek, Eden Neighborhood Association
Andrea Miller, Hathaway Park Neighborhood Association
Richard McCoy, Hathaway Park Neighborhood Association
Mori Mandis, Murdock Neighborhood Association
Charles Jones, Neighborhoods Commission
Lori Kahn, Primrose Neighborhood Association & Neighborhoods Commission
Kim Worrall, Rainbow West Neighborhood Association
Robert Benscoter, Stevens Creek Neighborhood Association
Ed Brooks, Strawberry Park Neighborhood Association & Neighborhoods Commission
Patty Brooks, Strawberry Park Neighborhood Association
Gary Cunningham, Strawberry Square HOA
Steve Landau, Winchester NAC
Kavya Shankar, Youth Commission

The Neighborhood Association Priority Setting Session is just one of the ways that the City of San José gathers feedback from residents about what they feel should be priorities for the City. The City has also hired a public opinion research firm to conduct a community telephone survey by polling 900 randomly selected households throughout the City. In addition to these efforts, we would still like to collect even more input if possible. Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio (District 6) created a survey to give more residents the opportunity to have their opinions counted. If you would like have your voice heard, please click here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QMLQG5F to participate in the web survey on the City's budget priorities. The survey deadline is this Friday, February 5, so be sure to log-in this week. This survey asks some of the same questions as the phone survey.

Not only does the City want your input, but the federal government wants to hear from you too. Every new decade means a new head count for our country. You may have heard about Census 2010 … well, it's here. The census is a count of everyone in the United States, including people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens, and it happens every 10 years - so this is a census year. Click here to find out what you need to know about Census 2010, how it will affect you and why it is important that you participate.

The next major City event is the 2010 Community Breakfast, featuring the Mayor's State of the City Address, which will be held on Thursday, February 18, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., at the San José McEnery Convention Center. Outstanding members of the community from each Council District will be honored and exemplary City employees will be recognized during this annual event. Local community leaders nominated by their councilmembers will receive the Good Neighbor Award and the Pride of San José Award is earned by city employees who go above and beyond the call of duty. I am pleased to announce that Ed and Patty Brooks from the Strawberry Park Neighborhood Association have been selected from our district to receive the Good Neighbor Award.

Ed and Patty Brooks have been District 1 residents for 15 years. They founded the Strawberry Park Neighborhood Association in 2007, and are currently serving as President and Vice President of the association. The Brooks' have served as valuable community leaders in many ways. They organized a Strawberry Park Emergency Preparedness Fair and Blood Drive where more than 300 residents received emergency preparedness training and 45 units of blood were collected. They also created the website YourHelpList.com to help Strawberry Park neighbors and District 1 residents locate resources during difficult economic times. Ed and Patty have not only worked tirelessly for the benefit of the neighbors in their own association, but they have been generous with their time and wisdom in supporting those outside of their immediate boundaries. The Brooks' were instrumental in helping to establish the nearby Stevens Creek Neighborhood Association. Thank you Ed and Patty for everything that you have done and continue to do for District 1 … you certainly are Good Neighbors!

I would like to inform you about two important updates to the City of San José's Sign Code Ordinance that were adopted during the City Council meeting on January 12, 2010. I pushed hard for these changes in order to help businesses in San Jose and to maintain and improve the character of our neighborhoods. First, the existing ban will be maintained on billboards, capping the number of billboards in the City. The City will look for opportunities to move existing billboards from residential areas to commercial areas and will encourage property owners to upgrade their existing billboards. The second change is that freeway signs will now be allowed for shopping centers that are at least 15 acres in size. Additionally, the City will explore alternatives for allowing signs higher than 60 feet.

We are fortunate to have some wonderful, high-performing schools in District 1, and two such schools are Lynbrook High School and The Harker School. Outstanding students from both of these schools -- 10 altogether -- were recently selected as semi-finalists and finalists in a prestigious national science competition. To read more about what these scholars achieved and how their efforts will also benefit their schools, click here.

Whenever I have called on District 1 residents to help with community projects, you have consistently come through for me and I sincerely appreciate all of your support. I would like to continue with the momentum that we've created and suggest that we have regular community service projects in the district. This way we can tackle larger problems a little bit at a time. Click here to read about what I’m proposing.

If you would like the opportunity to make an even greater impact on our City, I encourage you to consider applying for one of the City's many boards and commissions. Applications are now being accepted for the spring cycle. The City is looking for interested residents to fill 45 seats on 13 different commissions. Click here for a list of available commissions and for more information on how to apply.

By now we have all seen and heard about the terrible tragedy in Haiti. The devastating images that were being shown in the days following the catastrophic earthquake have compelled many to reach out and try to help in whatever ways they can. The following is some information that was recently released from the White House that may be helpful if you are looking for ways to help.

For the most up to date information throughout the coming days please continue to monitor www.whitehouse.gov/HaitiEarthquake or www.state.gov.

A top priority is accounting for the thousands of American citizens who are currently in Haiti. Families of Americans living in Haiti who are trying to find the status of their loved ones are encouraged to contact the State Department at 1-888-407-4747. This line is experiencing a high volume of calls at this time, so we ask for your continued patience.

Cash donations are the most efficient and effective way to help the relief effort in Haiti right now. They allow humanitarian organizations to purchase (often within the affected region itself) the exact type and quantity of items needed by those affected by the crisis. Read about the advantages of monetary donations here. You can immediately donate to the Red Cross to assist the relief effort. Contribute online to the Red Cross, or donate $10 to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting "HAITI" to "90999." You can also find more ways to help through the Center for International Disaster Information, or through USAID's interactive website, which has a list of NGOs and instructions on how to help: http://www.usaid.gov.

Right now, the airport is being used to facilitate search and rescue efforts. This is a complex and difficult environment, and all of our efforts have to be focused on prioritizing and moving the right resources into Haiti that can save lives in the next 48 hours. That is why we are encouraging private citizens to focus their efforts on supporting established aid organizations that are deploying resources to Haiti, and to hold off on travelling there themselves.

So Punxsutawney Phil is scheduled to make his much-anticipated annual appearance tomorrow, February 2, 2010. Is spring around the corner, or will we have another six weeks of winter? What do you think?

Your Neighbor,

P.S. This month, I will be holding my district office hours on Wednesday, February 3, from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., at the West Valley Branch Library, and on Thursday, February 18, from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m., at the Cypress Senior Center. Please feel free to drop by.

PETE IN THE NEWS

January 18, 2010
San Jose Mercury News, San Jose councilman, businesses work on bag ban details
Councilman Pete Constant - who cast the sole vote against the bag ban - led a discussion in November with roughly 40 business leaders at the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, and city environmental officials took note of their concerns. ... "Some of the concerns were about the $650,000 cost of implementation," Constant said recently. "I wonder how we can justify that when we're laying off employees and we're short-staffed in our police and fire departments."

January 12, 2010
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Team San Jose moves closer to resolving labor dispute
Councilman Pete Constant, who is the council's representative on the Team San Jose board, said, "The board gets it. We have had a long discussion about the topic and everyone is very sincere about resolving this." Constant said the board is "thrilled" that jobs generated at the Convention Center will now go to Local 287, but he added, "I wish we never would have the controversy along with that."

January 12, 2010
San Jose Mercury News, In San Jose, new housing developments must include affordable units
Councilmen Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio restated their earlier opposition to the ordinance, citing concerns from business leaders and the housing industry that it would stifle economic recovery and that developers would end up raising the costs of their market-priced homes to recover costs from the affordable units.

January 4, 2010
San Jose Fitness Examiner, Local politicians to join fitness effort for world record at Workout Worldwide Saturday, January 9
Word just in from Becky Williamson, host of San Jose's activities for Workout Worldwide, that two popular local politicians will be attending the January 9 event as impartial witnesses to certify the event for the Guiness Book of World Records: County Supervisor Ken Yeager and City Councilman Pete Constant.

Councilmember Pete Constant
District 1, City of San José
200 East Santa Clara Street,
18th Floor
San José, CA 95113
Telephone: (408) 535-4901
Fax: (408) 292-6448
Pete.Constant@sanjoseca.gov
www.sjdistrict1.com

Inside this Issue:

• Pete's Message
• United States Census 2010
• District 1 Schools Raising the Bar
• District 1 Community Service Projects

Helpful Links for D1 Residents:

• Pete's Calendar
• Council Agenda
• Live and Archived Council Meetings
• District 1 Map
• Photos of District 1 Events
• District 1 Neighborhood Groups
• Pete and District 1 in the News
• Parks in District 1
• District 1 Staff
• Review permits in San José

Service Providers for D1 Residents:

Connecting to your government:

• Mayor and Council
• San José Charter
• San José Municipal Code
• San José Boards and Commissions
• Santa Clara County
• Registrar of Voters
• Guide to Government
• State of California
• U.S. Government

Important Phone Numbers:

Questions?
If you have any questions about the District 1 E- Newsletter, please contact our office at District1@sanjoseca.gov or call (408) 535-4901

Announcement Submission Form
If you have an event that you would like to publicize in our District 1
E-Newsletter, please use our
E-Newsletter Submission Form.

You may click here to remove yourself from future mailings and/or change your preferences for receiving any mailings from us. 

To review or update the contact information we have on file for you, please click here.