Meeting Minutes

September 27, 2007, 7:00pm

 

 

I.             Call to Order and Welcome:

The meeting was called to order at 7pm. In attendance were Steve Pollock, Jay Wheeler, Gracie Corral, Sicy Simoes, Gustavo Gonzalez, Neil _____ (Business Manager for ARUSD), Alice Sanchez, David Sanchez, ______ &______ (residents near SJ Country Club?),  Bud LoMonaco, Mario Tavares, Melinda Bettencourt.

 

II.          Announcements: David Sanchez

A.    ARNC Meeting with Deputy City Manager, Mark Linder

1.      David has initiated contact with the San Jose City Manager, Deb Figone, and San Jose Deputy City Manager, Mark Linder, as well as the County Supervisor and County Roads and Airports regarding the issues of neglect of services to the county/city border jurisdictions with issues in Alum Rock and particularly along the East Hills Drive corridor. David has also sent a number of letters to County officials regarding the abandoned houses on East Hills Drive which looks to be escalating toward contacting the District Attorney’s office to possibly pursue legal action to require the County to address the abandoned house problem.

 

III.       Alum Rock Village: Bud LoMonaco

 

1.      ARVBA has taken action on the “La Bodega” building by contacting code enforcement. The code enforcement officer issued five violations and 3 warnings, for instance one violation of the broken glass on the storefront and another of weed overgrowth in the rear area which are both public safety issues. The officer has given the property owner a 90 day window of compliance after which further fines can be issued and that can eventually lead to the possibility of a lien against the property.

 

a.       By suggestion of Gustavo, David will write a letter on behalf of ARNC to the property owner expressing the community’s concern over the blighted condition of the property.

 

2.      Bud mentioned that ARVBA has also drafted a letter to be sent to the property owner and would be willing to share it with David to give him an idea of ARVBA’s response.

 

3.      Bud announced that the date for the Light Up the Village Event has been set for Saturday, December 1^st from 12pm to 6pm and the association is open to take sponsors with availability to have an information table and hopes that ARNC can participate.

 

4.      Bud also brought up the issue about the clogged up gutters in the village. Having spoken with Mark Linder, he was informed that the city ordinance is that it is the business owner’s responsibility to have the gutters cleaned.

 

5.      ARVBA will be getting assistance from the city arborist to have the trees trimmed that have become overgrown which will improve visibility of the street signs in the Village.

 

6.      Lastly, he updated that Miss Café is now being watched more closely for its illegal/nuisance activities.

 

a.       David updated on the note of Alum Rock businesses engaging illegal/nuisance activities, the corner building that was the site of Kattengell’s appears to have been cleared of the suspicious squatter.

 

IV.       Alum Rock School Board Trustee Update:  Gustavo Gonzalez

 

a.       Gustavo started out with announcing the encouraging increase in the number of schools, out of the 26 schools in the district, with API scores of 700 or above from six schools four years ago to the current number of 17 schools as well as another two schools with API’s of 800+ and one school reaching an over 900 API.

 

b.      Budgetary wise the district is currently running at a deficit but is still solvent. Knowing that the school district has a long way to go to balance its spending, he said that the trustees as well as the new superintendant, Norma Martinez, are working to bring the budget into balance. They are looking at issuing a bond measure which would mean an increase to local property taxes, to help with improvements to the schools as many are seriously lacking in basic amenities such as air conditioning which impacts students’ abilities to concentrate during high heat days during the school year. He noted, with agreement from meeting attendees, that the increase in property tax is well worth the investment toward the education of our future generations which creates a better community for all.

 

c.       On the note strengthening our community through improving the educational opportunities in Alum Rock, he was also excited to announce the school district has a dual Spanish/English immersion school citing that studies have shown that children who learn in a bilingual environment have improved neural capacity as well as ability to read/write/speak in two languages.

 

d.      Gustavo gave a list of the upcoming district meetings which are held at Pala School and encouraged community members to attend to help them with getting to know more about what’s going on in Alum Rock schools.

 

e.       Lastly, Gustavo gave an overview and explanation of some of the schools comprising the district with regards to the one district charter school, Kipp Hart; the three small schools of choice, Adelante (dual immersion program), Renaissance, and LUCHA and the difference between these schools and the rest of the schools in the main school district. He noted that the charter school and the small schools of choice have more flexibility in their approach to addressing some of the specific needs of their students than that of the main curriculum taught in the district. The rest of the schools in the district are taught a curriculum that is consistent throughout so that any student that transfers from one schools to another within the district are able to pick up where they were in the previous school.

 

V.                Neighborhood Beautification: David Sanchez

A.    Alum Rock blight and litter - “those people in East San Jose are the cause of the litter problem”

 

1.      David brought up that he will be looking into the comment that had been reported in an email from community member AJ Sen’s discussion with officials regarding Alum Rock litter issues of “those people in East San Jose are the cause of the litter problem”. He found the comment offensive and is planning to find out who made the comment in order to issue a response.

 

a.       A question was raised by an attendee about the procedure for how to address the blight in the area.

 

b.      David will put together a FAQ for the process for how to address such problems as blight, abandoned houses and vehicles, graffiti, and litter.

 

B.     680 & Alum Rock/McKee Rd. on/off ramp dump

 

1.      David recapped on the very vocal community response to the litter build up on the 680/Alum Rock/McKee on/off ramp and that follow up with CalTrans will be necessary in order to keep on top of the issue.

 

C.     Adopt-A-Highway (Alum Rock, SR130)

 

1.      David brought up the idea that it might be a good idea to approach the San Jose Country Club with perhaps adopting SR130

 

a.       Bud mentioned that there’s also Adopt-A-Park and Adopt-A-Street as other possibilities

 

D.    Regular Litter Clean Ups

 

1.      Steve proposed to have monthly litter clean ups. The group discussed this possibility but felt that monthly would be too much preferred every other month. Steve suggested doing one in October and David proposed McKee and White for the location.

 

2.      Elizabeth noted that one of the issues that she feels is unique to Alum Rock’s location along the east foothills is the way the wind plays a part in the litter problem in combination with the way the garbage companies collect the residential and commercial garbage. She has seen that non-bagged garbage blows out of the containers as the trucks hoist bins up to dump them in the back of the truck and anything that falls to the ground is not picked up by the garbage truck operator. David requested that Elizabeth send him an email about her observation.

 

E.     County Road and Traffic Issues

 

1.      Attendees marked out on a map of the Alum Rock neighborhood the streets with traffic, road maintenance, lighting, and lack of sidewalk issues.

 

VI.       ARNC Business: David Sanchez

 

A. Letters of Appreciation: David has sent out several letters of appreciation to the various officials who have been helpful in the past few months addressing ARNC concerns. More will be sent to code enforcement as well as Ruby from CalTrans in regards to the La Bodega and 680/Alum Rock litter issues.

 

B.  Gracie announced to the group that she had heard that the rebuild for Fire Station #2 will be going through citing that there were a few other councilmembers who back Nora Campos at the last council meeting.

        

         C.  Bud asked David if he could try to get an SJPD officer out to the next meeting

 

VII.  Adjournment:

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm with the next meeting scheduled to occur on Thursday, October 25^th at 7pm.

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