...Title
Cleaner San Jose. (Mayor, Davis, Foley, Cohen, Mahan)
...Recommendations
Direct the City Manager to:
1. Further expand employment opportunities for our unhoused residents in cleaning and beautifying our City by returning to Council with a cost estimate and proposed program sufficiently timely to enable Council’s allocation of up to $4 million American Recovery Plan Act dollars in November.
a. The program should enable employment of another 100 unhoused individuals in the San Jose Bridge Transitional Jobs Program by adding funding to the program served by the pending Request for Proposal (RFP), if responses to the RFP demonstrate sufficient nonprofit capacity for expansion of the program, and with Council approval of sufficient ARPA funding allocations.
b. Establish outcomes to dramatically improve the appearance of public spaces for our community over the next 18 months, such as:
i. Targeting an additional 50 litter hotpots for frequent (2x /month) cleanups
ii. Targeting an additional 200 lower-priority hotspots for less frequent (1x/month) cleanups
c. Prioritize high-need neighborhoods, with a focus on blighted streets, parks, and other public spaces most frequently and visibly encountered by our residents.
2. Report to the Council by November 2021 in person or with an information memo(s), with:
a. Introduction of a monetary reward for information and/ or evidence resulting in the successful citation of any individuals, companies, or subcontractors engaging in illegal dumping, such that reporting witnesses can receive a percentage of penalties collected in successful enforcement actions based on witness reports.
b. Update on the deployment of cameras at illegal dumping “hot spots” to enable citation of people engaged in illegal dumping, and that the update include the number of reports made using the cameras, citations that have been issued using evidence from the cameras, number of cameras in operation across all City Departments, and funding options for purchase, deployment, operations, maintenance, and administration of additional cameras.
c. Update on the current hybrid vehicle abatement approach (proactive & reactive), focusing on these metrics:
i. a comparison of the number of vehicles reported by the public, vehicles proactively noticed, and vehicles abated between March 2018 and October 2021,
ii. the status of the use of Funds, including the American Rescue Plan Fund to support the program,
iii. an explanation of how SJ311 resident requests are being processed, prioritized and decisions communicated back to the community, and
iv. an update on when the Administration intends to return to a full vehicle abatement program that responds to SJ311 resident requests.