Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse) - Regular Meeting

Before we begin, I want to remind the committee members and the members of the public to follow our code of conduct at meetings. This includes only commenting on the specific agenda item and addressing the entire body. Public speakers will not engage in a conversation with the chair, council members, or staff. All members of the committee staff, sorry. Failure to comply with the code of conduct, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct, will result in removal from the meeting. This meeting of the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee will now come to order. Can the clerk please call the roll?

Campos? Present. Candelas? Absent. Casey? Here. Vice chair Duan?

Here.

Chair Ortiz?

Present.

You have a quorum.

Great. Thank you so much. That moves us to item b, review of the work plan. Item one of that, family, friends, and neighbor neighbors caregiver support network status report.

I think they're out of order.

Chair Ortiz and members of the committee, I'm Jill Born, city librarian. The the other one from here. And we are pleased to be here today to give you an update on the Family Friend and Neighbor Caregiver Support Network program. I'm joined here with Anne Grabowski, who's our Deputy Director public services. And before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to just acknowledge one of our brilliant managers, Araceli Delgado Ortiz, who was the is the leader of the FFN program, and a lot of what you're gonna hear about really came from her commitment and her vision.

And she's embarrassed now, but she's amazing. So we're waiting for our slides. Oh, you don't have a presentation? I

believe this is item d one. Okay.

Yeah. Know, council member, I I think we're a little bit out of order, but we

Oh, did we jump ahead?

Yeah. We can go ahead and switch. Yeah. Yeah. Because b b one is the review of the work plan. And then what we and so those those are two items that were already approved at rules so we could go over to to the Children's Weath Master Plan status report. My apologies. Yeah.

We'll be back.

So both of these are approved?

Oh, they're already approved. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Alright.

Now we are going to d one reports to committee, children and youth master plan status report. And that's a presentation from Andrea Flores Shelton and Jill Born.

Hello and good afternoon chair and council members. I'm gonna fill in for Andrea Flores Shelton while she heads down. So just to give a little bit of background on the children youth services master plan, the council adopted the plan 04/09/2024, and then the city has really, at this point, shifted from our planning to early implementation phase with a strong emphasis on alignment, coordination, and equity. In May 2025, the city finalized our grant agreements with our with Grail Family Services and Catholic Charities to operationalize our no wrong door approach in the demonstration site neighborhoods. The city and county continue to coordinate on our systems change to implement the no wrong door approach, and we also have some of our county representatives with us here today.

Today's update highlights progress in advancing shared city and county areas of interest, expanding equitable access to services, strengthening neighborhood level coordination, and advancing three of priority areas under the children and youth services master plan. So first, we're really looking at how we advance our city and county joint areas of interest. I wanna remind people those three areas were focused on our child care. Right? The county is getting ready to launch blueprint focused on policy actions to address the needs of our most vulnerable families, and we will have representatives from both our library and our parks, recreation, neighborhood services department.

And we also have a representative from the library on the child care advisory council, ensuring that the master plan priorities help to inform and align the regional work that is being that is taking place. We also had another area of a of joint interest, that was our school to prison pipeline really disrupting that. So we are getting ready to form our cross sector work groups to begin the work for this in the spring. For the Latino health assessment implementation, this item will be brought to a future, San Jose Youth Empowerment Alliance policy team meeting with the focus on identifying where the city can help advance action items that align with the master plan agenda. Next, we're really looking at how do we expand that equitable access.

So we are making tangible progress in expanding access to our services. For example, our recreation division led on-site scholarship registration in our demonstration sites to ensure accessibility. So think about our Santee neighborhood, 7 Trees, Poka Way, and Mayfair neighborhoods. As a result, we were able to ensure that 83 of our youth received scholarships, representing approximately $57,000 in support with folks being able to register for those critical summer camp child care slots that we know so many families depend on. We're also looking at how we continue to strengthen the alignment at the neighborhood level.

Right? And this is really around strengthening the coordination with our neighborhoods. So we're looking at some cross departmental training sessions in March and April, and this is really around our community centers and library staff that are serving those families and residents in the demonstration site neighborhoods as we really hone in and focus on that no wrong door approach. And then last, I wanted to remind folks that the strategic priority areas that we are focused in right now are early learning and child care. That's really being led by the library for us at this time.

Our meaningful and sustaining jobs, that's really OED is our key partner. And then safe, clean, and connected communities, that's being led through our PR NS teams. To so to support the implementation, we're also working with San Jose State University's president's office. They have secured a doctoral student who can provide some additional capacity particularly for our early learning and child care and meaningful and sustaining jobs. And that's the end of my report. Let me see if Jill wanted to add anything. That's the end of our report. Thank you.

Great. I just have some comments. I don't know if any of my colleagues have anything to to add, but appreciate this very important work. And I say that not just because I represent the area in which some of this work is is being done, but, you know, I I truly believe that if we invest in our youth, especially those who grow up in vulnerable neighborhoods without in many cases the resources that some of our communities may take for granted, we'll end up saving money in the future. Because many of these things are essentially intervention for youth that would otherwise fall through the cracks.

And hopefully we could give them the foundation that they need so that when they get older we don't have to spend as much money on gang intervention or see them get caught up in the juvenile justice system. Because many times once they are already caught up in that lifestyle it's a lot harder to get them out. So really want to thank you all for doing that work. I know that as of lately we've been talking about the budget shortfall and potential, nobody likes to talk about this, but potential cuts. And I have a concern that every time when people start saying cuts, it usually goes to youth services or community services.

Are we concerned that anything, any decisions made during the budget cycle may impact our implementation of the master plan?

So I have Andrea that will come up and respond to that.

Thank you, Andrea.

Good afternoon. Andrea Flores Shelton, assistant director of Parks Recreation Neighborhood Services. Through our budget prioritization that we're doing internally and turning into the city manager's office, we're being very mindful of all of our priorities whether they be racial and health equity or our vulnerable communities and putting the Children and Youth Master Plan lens over those. But with a $15,000,000 budget reduction target for the department, we need to be need to meet that target and we're doing our best to strategize and prioritize to do minimal impacts where possible.

Great. And I know, you know, it's really hard to do that, so I appreciate that. And, you know, things don't always go as according to plan, but, you know, I know this work is very important. I I it it always reminds me to the to the African proverb, the child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth. And these kids who aren't, you know, embraced by our systems are gonna be the ones who are joining gangs and participating in violence or robbing, you know, or breaking into cars.

And so if we're able to give them the foundation they need, hopefully they won't go down. And I know I'm I'm preaching to the choir, guys have been doing this much longer than me. How can we I know that the city has given an initial fund to the implementation of the master plan, but ongoing funds, I mean I imagine this work is going to be ongoing. It's not just going to be an initial lump fund. It's going to need other funding streams. How is the city thinking about this? Whether it's coming from us, whether we're looking at philanthropic dollars, how can we be a catalyst to make sure pilot but like it's something ongoing.

And that's through the continued partnership not only with the county who has the critical safety net services. Obviously our core service strategies along with multiple departments in the city and then our philanthropic partners where we I think we really need to continue to focus on the pilot and seeing what comes out of the pilot and how we can sort of root and establish sort of the potential success of the no wrong door to prove that this is something that we want to replicate. And then we would again sort of again assess what we need to continue to maintain in the city and or expand and see where our philanthropic partners can fill in those gaps.

Great. Great. Because every not just District 5 and District 7, but every district has a Poka Way or a Santee. There's Roeder, there's Hoffen via Monte and it'd be good to see how we could amplify this. And then finally, I've been talking specifically, it hasn't been decided yet, but I've been laser focused on economic development and calling for an economic revitalization strategy in East San Jose. And part of creating jobs. And one thing I just want to make sure is whatever I introduce is aligned with this given that the master plan also talks about creating good jobs and stuff like that. So I'd like to see how this can overlap. That's more just a statement, not a I don't need a response for that. But thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm gonna pass it off to my my colleague, council member Campos.

Thank you, chair, and thank you for that last point about the economic development and we know that child care is essential to a thriving workforce when we lose access to child care all work stops. We saw that during the pandemic and it's why child care in particular was uplifted as part of the essential workforce. I appreciate the update on the Children Youth Master Plan, which includes child care and early learning, but also housing, mental health, meaningful and sustaining jobs. And so I'm I'm proud of the update that you shared with partnerships with key San Jose institutions like San Jose State that are also looking at the Children Youth Master Plan and identifying ways to align their strategies in their work plan with the city given that we we share this work. And so I am grateful to the comments of the chair and look forward to future reports, and I will move to approve this report.

Second.

Great. Thank you so much. Vice chair Dewan.

Thank you, chair. First of all, just wanna say you guys are doing a fantastic job in investing in our youth. Can we do more? Absolutely, unequivocally, Because quality in how we educate our children, how do we support them not only through childcare but from kindergarten to k eight and from k eight all the way to to high school. Our children now are competing even at young age, not only here in San Jose, they are competing technically globally.

And how do we move our children from involving to gangs and and into education? And it's not only about them, it's about our future. It's about the future generation. When we call our self, you know, the the the Central Silicon Valley and the richest city in the nation. We're I I feel like our educational system is is way behind.

And and that's why a lot of our children, they are extremely smart. They need to be challenged. They need to be, you know, in a in a sense inspire and empower to be better. When you when we are still teaching timetable, when other math math math math formulation out there can do way more than, you know, 10 time ones and so on. We need to prepare ourself to support the children by what?

By supporting the essential family value. Parents are not there to help their children. Not there to guide their children because they're working two or three jobs. That's where the family unit is broken, right? And children now are fending for themselves.

They're they're not able to concentrate on school. And I'm not saying all, but I think our children almost become disengaged. And a lot of it being disrespectful teachers and police officer and parents and so on. And I believe that we need to get back to the basic. The basics is helping that family value to sit and talk to each other.

Have a time where the the parents doesn't have to work two jobs where they can work one and spends that valuable time with their children. Because right now, I've I've seen it happen everywhere I go, including restaurants and family gathering. Everybody texting each other. And they're looking for the next entertainment. How about looking for the next avenue that we can support the kids through the parents, through childcare, through program like the, you know, the Children Youth Master Plan and enhance upon it.

And and council member Ortiz said it best. Right? The the amount of money that we invest now will pay off in in tens of billions of dollars downline. And I think it's important that we we look at not only leverage what the county part is, but also what other state program and federal program to support us. And even though in the deficit, I believe that we can do more even though we have less.

But we can all we reach out and and ask for grant and ask our congress, right, including Sam Liccardo and Zola Ochran and so on to support us because we are the twelfth largest city in the nation. What we do here spread out. It it speak loudly. How do we change the system? How do we make it better? With that, I I say thank you again for for your hard work. There there's still a long way to go. And, we're here to support you and we'll stand with you. Thank you.

Great. Thank you so much, vice chair. Let's call for

a vote.

Oh, sorry. Do we have any public comment? Let me just see if these cards are Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

For this item. No public comment.

Alrighty. Let's move forward.

You. That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Next, we go to item two, citywide sustainable park maintenance annual report.

Good afternoon, chair and members of the council. My name is Avi O'Tomin. I'm deputy director of parks, recreation, and neighborhood services. Joined today by Tori O'Reilly, division manager for park maintenance, and Claire Sioni, program manager for business intelligence and data analytics in our department. And we are unfortunately not joined today by the amazing Eddie Moreno, who is our park supervisor for downtown parks, and he and his team have done an amazing job cleaning up our public spaces along with a lot of support from Beautify, San Jose, and others for these last few weeks.

He's recovering from an illness though, so we're gonna try to replicate his energy and enthusiasm. Today's report provides a transparent and data driven look at the state of park maintenance across San Jose. Our parks are deeply valued and used by the community, but the system is under increasing strain. Peer and maintenance staff care deeply about their work and accomplish so much despite resource constraints. Today's presentation will focus on what we measure, what the data tells us about park conditions and community expectations, how we're resourced, how deferred maintenance and aging infrastructure impact day to day maintenance, and what we need to do to next to sustain our park system.

Well maintained and resourced parks directly affect safety, usability, and equity across neighborhoods. With that, I'll turn it over to Tori.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Tori O'Reilly, division manager overseeing park maintenance. In 2025, PRNS conducted two park condition assessments using traditional standards and higher standards informed by PRC feedback and community expectations. Parks are evaluated across 20 categories using consistent pass fail criteria to ensure reliable citywide results.

Assessments Assessments are completed by teams of two to three to provide on the ground consistent evaluations. Condition data is paired with resident feedback through the park user survey and the city manager's statistically valid community community satisfaction survey to better understand how parks are experienced by the public. PCA scores combined with healthy places index help prioritize projects in communities with the greatest need, while contractors and volunteers extend city capacity where staff resources are limited. Next slide, please. And of

to that state of recorded.

And of the

we're

used to highlight the gap between budgeted capacity and community expectations. Results reflect that park quality is influenced by multiple factors including maintenance, capital investment needs, and community values. This data informs maintenance priorities, resource allocation, and transparent communication with city leadership and with the public. Please. This slide provides a side by side comparison of how traditional and higher standards are applied to the same park feature such as natural turf.

Higher standards tighten performance expectations across cleanliness, color, weeds, density, drainage, and edging. While both standards meet basic safety and usability requirements, the higher standards reflect a level of quality more closely aligned with community expectations and PRC feedback. Next slide, please. Comparing traditional and higher higher standards illustrates the gap between current staffing and funding levels and the level of service residents expect. This comparison helps frame a realistic discussion about service levels, resource needs and what can be achieved with existing capacity.

I'm now gonna turn this over to my colleague, Claire Sioni.

Hi. I'm Claire Sioni, a business intelligence program manager for Parks. In 2025, park facilities averaged 85% under traditional assessment standards and 78% under higher standards. The traditional score is down slightly from 2024. And what's key here is not just the small decline from 2024 to 2025, but the difference in scores on the two methods in 2025.

Traditional standards tell us whether parks meet basic maintenance that the department is currently resourced to meet, while higher standards tell us whether parks meet community expectations. This gap helps explain why parks can appear acceptable on paper but still feel undermaintained to residents. Next slide. Civic grounds, such as landscaping around community centers, libraries, and government buildings, continue to perform well. These are typically small areas with less assets that are straightforward to keep up.

In 2025, they averaged 92% under traditional standards, an improvement from last year, and 85 under higher standards. Next. When we look at developed Parkland by acreage, the overall picture is mixed. Fewer acres met the 80% benchmark in 2025 compared to 2024 under the traditional standards. At the same time, we saw an increase in the percentage of acreage scoring in the 90 to 99% range.

However, nearly half of all park acreage falls below 70% under higher standards. This tells us that while some parks are improving, many others are not meeting the level of quality our community expects. Next. Most council districts remained relatively consistent from 2024 to 2025 with Districts 56, nine, and 10 showing stable or improved traditional scores. District 8 experienced the largest decline.

When higher standards are applied, all districts score lower. This is most evident in lower healthy places index neighborhoods. This indicates that parks in these areas can meet traditional maintenance standards but fall short of meeting the higher standards threshold when compared to parks in higher healthy places index neighborhoods. Based on these findings, the department will move to using higher standards exclusively and will further integrate HPI data into maintenance planning, staffing, and service routes to better target needs and promote equity. Next.

To complement staff assessments, the department conducted a park user survey with 320 participants in 2025. Outreach efforts included signage parks and at community centers and neighborhood association and community newsletters. Trees, hardscapes, and parking lots received the highest ratings, while resident while restrooms, drinking fountains, and exercise stations, the three most vandalized assets, received the lowest. Open ended responses emphasized deteriorating turf, restroom conditions, and cleanliness as areas to improve. This feedback reinforces what the assessment show.

Sustained resource constraints are affecting both conditions and public confidence in the park system. Next slide. The department also reviewed the city manager's annual community satisfaction survey data on parks. Results show a steady decline in public perception of park appearance and maintenance since 2010. Staffing cuts after the.combust and Great Recession followed by COVID nineteen impacts drove ratings to their lowest point in 2020 to 2022 when 35% of maintenance positions were vacant.

Conditions have improved as staffing recovered. Vacancies dropped to 9% in 2025, and programs like Beautify SJ were implemented. However, ratings remain below mid 2,000 levels. Overall, data indicates long term staffing and cleanliness challenges have reduced public satisfaction in San Jose parks. In addition to the voluntary annual park user survey and reviewing the city manager's annual community satisfaction survey, the department conducted a statistically valid survey of over 1,000 San Jose voters last September.

The goal of this survey was to understand voter sentiment toward parks to inform our efforts in identifying viable options to generate new revenue for park maintenance. The survey shows that most voters visit parks at least a few times per month and view them as a valuable public resource. At the same time, more than one in 10 voters immediately associated parks with needing better maintenance when asked to use a word or phrase to describe them. Voters identified keeping parks clean, maintaining restrooms, and removing weeds that increase wildfire risk as top priorities, areas where satisfaction is low. The results of this survey highlight that there's a real gap between expectations and current conditions, and that gap is where satisfaction, usage, and quality of life can start to erode if we don't address it. Now I'll send it back

to Tory.

Thanks. Thank you, Claire. Since 2003, park maintenance staffing has decreased by 19%, while the amount of parkland maintained by the city has increased by 22%. While we brought on contractors to provide the equivalent of 12 full time employees in custodial services for restrooms and to maintain a 150 acres of pocket parks, this still leaves fewer staff responsible for maintaining more acres. This growing imbalance helps explain current service limitations and underscores the need for careful prioritization, alternative service delivery models, and strategic use of available resources.

It also helps build the case for permanent reliable funding for the park maintenance through a future ballot measure. Next slide, in a cost effective and equity focused way through contractors, partnerships, and volunteers. Volunteer contributions alone equate to nearly 23 full time staff and help support maintenance activities, particularly in lower healthy places index neighborhoods. A new graffiti removal pilot in partnership with Beautify San Jose program targets highly impacted parks and saves staff time by reducing both on-site removal work and administrative recording required for each tag. And just as an example, example, to report to have graffiti abated, we need to report every single tag individually, and it takes average two to three minutes.

So if park staff come to a park and there's like 30 or 40 tags, you can see the amount of time it takes them away from doing maintenance activities. The department is exploring more ways to optimize service delivery between park maintenance and the Beautify San Jose program through the upcoming twenty six-twenty seven budget process. Together, these approaches help direct resources where they are most needed and where they can have the greatest impact. Next slide. PRNS is moving towards a more complete picture of park conditions by integrating maintenance assessments with capital assessments.

Day to day maintenance data, or PCAs, and capital improvement programs, CIP assessment answer different but complementary questions about park conditions. Maintenance data reflects day to day performance like cleanliness and routine upkeep, while capital assessments identify larger life cycle and infrastructure health based on disrepair, decay, and deterioration. Viewing these assets datasets separately provides an incomplete picture of park needs and of our park system health. Bringing these datasets together improves transparency, better aligns maintenance and capital investments, and strengthens long term planning. This integrated approach will be reflected in the Sustainable Park Maintenance Annual Report and support clearer, more informed decision making.

I'm now gonna turn it back over to Avi.

Thank you, Tore. Aging infrastructure is a driving is driving a growing deferred maintenance backlog now estimated at more than $550,000,000 for parks recreation facilities. To put that into context, replacing a playground today typically costs about $1,000,000. We have over 300 playgrounds in our city parks, so replacing all of them would cost more than 300,000,000 if we had to do it all at once. Now, thankfully, we don't have to do that.

But we do wanna note that we built over 80 playgrounds with Measure P, the the bond, the general obligation bond that the community passed in 2000. And many of those playgrounds are approaching or exceeding their expected lifespans, and it'll cost $80,000,000 in total to replace all of them when they fail. As infrastructure passes its useful life, staff time is increasingly consumed by reactive repairs, reducing capacity for preventive maintenance. For example, in the last fiscal year, our staff spent 35% more time repairing irrigation systems than in the prior year. Last year alone, we had to repair 40 mainline breaks.

When you think about a mainline break, it means everything in the park is out. The drinking fountain, the restroom, and very importantly for the long term health and our maintenance work, all the irrigation is absolutely prioritize those repairs, but they take time and it impacts the quality of life that the residents experience in their parks. All that time could have been spent on other care in parks if the irrigation systems were not past their lifespan. When routine maintenance is delayed or deprioritized, small issues escalate into large, more costly projects, increasing long term system wide costs. Staffing deficits compound these challenges, straining the ability to maintain our parks at desired service levels.

The public works department manages the estimation of deferred maintenance and infrastructure backlogs across the city. We've heard from this committee and the Parks and Recreation Commission and the community that there's a desire to better understand what the backlog is for parks. In coordination with public works, PRNS will refine how the park specific deferred maintenance number is quantified. This refined estimate will be reflected in future annual reports that we bring here supporting clear investment decisions and long term planning. An updated citywide number for deferred maintenance and infrastructure backlog is also expected to be presented to the city council this spring.

Moving forward. The data collected and reported here points toward clear and actionable next steps. First, we're gonna continue using higher standards in our park condition condition assessments to reflect conditions experienced by the community. We are developing we're in the process of developing a parks and recreation master plan to better coordinate capital and maintenance planning. We're expanding capital infrastructure assessments to give a fuller picture of park conditions, and through this, building the case for permanent reliable funding for park maintenance.

Our goal through all of that is alignment between community expectations and service levels, between capital investments and ongoing maintenance needs, and between funding and the park system San Jose residents want and deserve. We actually presented one more slide last week to the Parks and Recreation Commission when we presented the same report there. We presented a slide that very specifically went through the feedback we had received by the Parks and Rec Commission and how we've adapted and improved our processes. And I just wanna share a little little bit of that here. We received feedback from the commission that the standards were too low, so we raised our standards, expanded what's measured, and strengthened our objectivity.

We got feedback that staff shouldn't assess their own parks. So this meticulously ensured that no staff was assessing their own park. Last year, we got feedback that we shouldn't exclude parks that we're not maintaining because they were in disrepair like Columbus Park or the Smythe Field. So this year, we've added those parks back into our scoring. This year, we expanded our review of community input beyond the voluntary survey that people can fill out to also include the city manager satisfaction survey and the statistically valid valid survey of voters.

And finally, we're in the process of better aligning maintenance and capital condition data through the work on the Park and Recreation Master Plan. Together, these changes improve transparency and decision making and better position us to align maintenance and capital planning with community perception. With that, we'd recommend that the committee accept our report, and we're available for questions.

Great. Thank you so much to staff. We're gonna open it up to see if there's any public comments.

We have one speaker card for Ken Brennan. Please make your way down. You will have two minutes to speak. The timer and translation is displayed above.

Hi. Hello, council members. My name is Ken Brennan. I'm the parks commissioner for District 10. Speaking today as a resident.

What is missing from the PCA presentation today is a clear explanation of why maintenance outcomes continue to fall way short. We consistently hear the narrative that San Jose's parks maintenance challenges are primarily about limited resources, that we spend less per resident than other cities, that staffing per acre has declined, and that achieving better parks maintenance requires additional taxes. What is largely absent is an honest discussion about productivity, operational effectiveness, organizational structure, and leadership performance within the existing maintenance system. To the careful observer of park maintenance operations, there are visible productivity challenges, over staffing of certain routine tasks while higher priority issues remain unresolved, inconsistent supervision, equipment that doesn't match the work being performed, and a lack of clear ownership when problems persist. Crews spend too much time in transit rather than working in the parks.

Coverage models are inefficient with some parks seeing multiple teams visiting multiple times while others rely on one team. Work plans often lack measurable expectations and outcomes. Over time, these conditions lead to wasted resources, reduced productivity, and they compound the maintenance backlog. A significant portion of the 550,000,000 maintenance backlog is due to the cumulative effect of years of productivity shortcomings in the maintenance organization, not funding issues. Residents expect department leaders to first address the issues within their control before attributing poor outcomes solely to funding levels.

They want accountability and operational improvement. Before asking residents to support new funding, I respectfully urge the council to ensure demonstrates that existing resources are being deployed with maximum efficiency and a

Thank you. Back to the committee.

Thank you so much for the public comment. I have some questions, but I'm gonna go to council member Campos.

Thank you, chair, and thank you staff for this report. I know that from the data that you shared and from the annual city services that our parks are valued greatly by our San Jose residents. We can tell by how much we've continued to invest as a city in creating more green open spaces, and these are clearly places that benefit our communities in terms of giving them access to physical and mental health benefits. And so given

that we

know how important they are to our community, I encourage staff to continue continue strengthening the relationship with how our community is informing this work. And as we're considering upgrades in the future, I know that our colleague council member Cohen, would encourage us to think about the climate change and building for climate resilience as we upgrade and and look for opportunities to build in green infrastructure. So with that, I will move to accept the annual report on citywide sustainable park maintenance. Second.

Great. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. I'm gonna ask some questions unless and my colleagues want to speak. First I just wanna acknowledge the work put forward by Parks Recreations and Neighborhood Services team.

Thank you for everything you do every day for our neighborhoods. As you know, my office has been working very closely with you all conducting monthly park audits. And while it was tough in the beginning to see some concerns persist, in the past couple of months we've noticed real improvements. Graffiti being addressed more quickly and fixes to long time broken infrastructure. But I want to acknowledge that not every council member is going to prioritize parks the way that I do given the amount of interest I have from my constituents.

And so it shouldn't require this level of engagement from a council member. But I do want to acknowledge that it has improved. At the same time you are maintaining more parkland with fewer staff than in the past. Over the last two decades staffing has declined while acreage usage and complexity have increased. That's not a small operational challenge, it's a structural strain.

Despite that, several District 5 parks are still scoring in the high 80s and 90s under both traditional and higher standards. That reflects committed frontline staff who take pride in their work. And I wanna thank you for the higher standards. I believe I was one of the council members who had raised concerns because really we should be trying to meet the expectations of our constituents, right? And not other expectations.

But when we look at the higher standards assessment overall, they tell us something important. Many parks meet base line service levels, but they are not consistently meeting community level expectations. That gap isn't about performance, it's about the level of investment we have been able to make. We want parks that reflect the pride of our Issan Jose communities. We need to align our funding decisions with that of our goals.

The question is whether we are prepared to support you at the level that our residents expect. And so I have a few questions. When we look at Hillview and Mayfair Parks, both parks I've had staff come and meet me at, we've done tours of them, they've seen a clear multi year decline. Hillview has dropped about 15.5 percentage points over the last three years and I know we've had community meetings about Hillview Park. And Mayfair has dropped about 18.5 points. I'd like to understand what is specifically driving these declines. Can you explain why this pattern is happening and why intervention may not be working?

Yeah. I can take this. So at those two parks in particular, I looked and their scores for turf had dropped pretty significantly. And if Eddie were here, he could probably explain in more detail on their irrigation systems. If they were broken or down, then that affects basically anything in the park that's green. So not only the turf, but also the planted or landscaped areas or any athletic fields. So if we invest more in irrigation, I foresee those scores going going back up.

So you're saying the reason for the low scores is mostly because of the irrigation system?

Correct.

Do we have any idea how much it would cost to fix that irrigation system?

I don't know that we can answer that right now because I think that we'd need to assess if we need to fully replace all irrigation. I see. I did want to add that at both of those parks and at many of our parks, because turf is one of our lower scoring items, we do have a lot of burrowing rodent issues and it's something we're continually trying to improve on, but it takes a lot of time to do large scale eradication, but we are moving towards we're making improvements in that area.

Okay. Thank you. I look forward to solving that in partnership with your office. While some parks' traditional scores and higher standard scores vary by about five to 10 percentage points, there's a mass gap that I see at Sylvia Cassell Park. When we look at the data, the traditional score improves dramatically from 77% in 2023 to 97% in 2025. But the higher standard score sits at 61%. That's a quite sizable gap. Can you help me understand why that is?

Councilmember, that's a great question that you pointed out that you're pointing out. What we've seen is in some cases, we've reached that lower, what we call traditional, but it's a lower standard that we had used in the past. So we had been doing different work, maintenance work over the years, and we hit those lower thresholds. So for instance, maybe the turf of that park was now 80% green, but that still meant 20% of the turf could have been dead. When we took it up to mostly 95% standards to reflect what the community wants out of a park, we saw that a lot of parks came down and that one clearly probably had a lot of items that had just crossed the lower threshold and now everything is much below the higher level target.

So we think that it's a reflection of using that higher standard lens and seeing the park for what it is versus the lower standard that made it feel a little bit better but wasn't showing us what the community sees.

Okay. On the flip side,

we have strong performers in District 5 like Mount Pleasant Park, which is scoring in the mid-90s. And that's also a park that many of the residents have reached out to me with concerns. So what are we doing differently at this park? Is it infrastructure infrastructure conditions, staffing frequency, fewer chronic issues or something else? Like I know that one of the public commenters said there's differentiation between the amount of teams that are showing up to these parks. Are we looking at, you know, whether it's staffing or or maintenance resources that differentiate between the parks? Or any anything that you could provide to that context.

Thank you, Councilor Martin. It's it's a great question and a multipart question. So I'm gonna try to take it in a couple parts.

Sure.

So at a glance, you know it with definitely with your parks in Council District 5, all parks have not been created equally. And some parks come with a 100 amenities. And I think the one that often gets used as an example of maybe of of the park everybody wants is the Willow Street, Bramhall Park in Council District 6. Just has everything you can imagine. And then with the support of Little League there who's maintaining the turf, very well maintained.

Some of the parks that we're talking about, like the the San Antonio Tot Lot and even Mount Pleasant Park have fewer amenities, which does make it easier on the day to day maintenance because you can cover a lot more ground more quickly. And at Mount Pleasant, it's a lot of turf, and we didn't have the extreme irrigation and issues that we had at at Hillview or Mayfair in this last year. In terms of staffing to the parks, it's actually it's a question that we we think about a lot. And we've actually even talked recently with our own contractors about a small park like the San Antonio Tot lot or some of these really tiny pocket parks. You can up with one truck, with one or two people, and then you hitched a small mower and you can do everything on the spot in an hour or two.

But when you deal with large parks, five, ten, 15 acres, you accomplish everything with that one crew that shows up. You'll typically have one crew that does day to day maintenance, picking up litter, clearing out the garbage cans, blowing down the the pathways. You'll have a separate team with who are specialized that will be handling repairs. You'll have a specialized team that does all the arbor work. You tend to have a specialized team that does the pest abatement.

And then in the case of large parks, you need larger equipment. You need larger mowers, And those can't get towed on the back of a typical truck. You need really large heavy duty trucks to do that. It's something we've actually talked just recently about with our contractor. And our own contractor that handles the small parks in our system, the pocket parks, explained to us that they would have to deploy three or four different crews at different times to maintain a large park.

So it's it is a topic we think about. There is a difference between very small pocket parks and the larger parks we deal with. The last piece I will mention because you've asked about staffing decisions in this. We've actually prepared already what we're what we've called a redistricting, not not your council districts, obviously, but redistricting within our park teams based on the results of the park condition assessment, especially using the higher standards that point out some discrepancies across regions and across healthy places index scores. And our plan with redistricting is to realign staffing and put more staffing into the areas that have lower park condition scores and have lower healthy places index.

I'll just acknowledge we've paused that effort at this point because we wanna see how this budget plays out. We don't wanna do this once and have to do it in three or four months after hearing how the budget ends. But we are prepared to to redeploy staff, again, to do the best we can with what we have, which is every day we come to work. That's the mission that our team has.

Thank

you. I appreciate that. And that actually goes into another question I was going to ask, you know, specifically about redistricting because there are council districts, I'm not going to point them out because this isn't about pointing out specific districts. But there are council districts that have consistently hit high levels. Right? And so it'd be good for me to understand like what are the reasons why these districts continue to hit high levels and maybe my district or District 7 or other districts continue to miss the mark. Is it staffing ratios? Is it route design? Is it you know the age of the infrastructure? How long the park's been there?

I'm sure maybe it's a combination of you know all of it. I was gonna essentially ask, are we gonna take those factors into consideration when it comes to assigning resources? So I guess if I were to massage that question, are those factors gonna be taken into consideration when you look redistricting of of this process?

Absolutely. We realize that in some some parks are used a little bit gentler, you know, where other parks where there may be more unhoused or there may be more vandalism, staff when they go to the park and address that, that takes time away from regular maintenance that maybe in some other council districts they don't have to do. And so we are taking that into account and adding extra staff in those areas because we know it's going to take more time. We're also looking at strike teams to go out and deal with some of the issues that we see are taking more time like illegal dumping or as we talked about we have the graffiti pilot. Pilot.

And we also as we spoke about last year with this group, once we complete the park edition assessments we look at each category and then prioritize. Of course health and safety issues we take care of immediately, but when it comes to other repairs within parks and where we put our additional resources, we do look at the Healthy Places Index and we do put more resources towards the neighborhoods that may not have other outdoor options besides their neighborhood parks.

Great. Thank you. And I appreciate the comments from the public in regards to making sure we try things before going out for a tax or a bond. I think we gotta explore both and I think this is a good opportunity to do so looking at this redistricting. But I know that when I look in my district, you know where I live, where I lay my hat, something's gotta change.

And I'm sure there is some efficiencies that every department at the city of San Jose. There's things we should all be open to scrutiny. We should all be looking at ways in which we could work, you know, streamline things, work better. But just the vast differences, it's it's too much to to ignore especially when my district doesn't make the amount of developer fees that other districts make. The only way we can actually rebuild this infrastructure historically has been a parks bond like what's what was done. But I'm open to all input and definitely want to see how we can make the department more efficient. Council member, vice chair Dewan.

Thank you, chair. Avi and your team, thank you for working hard out there to to make our parks and and our recreational facility look beautiful. As, you know, for example, we finally finally got the VHG with some water in there and then I believe the coils the coils should be in there about a week or so. But that park had been flooded since 2017. In almost ten years.

And we lost out on on lot of the funding including from from the FEMA and then from the rotary that could've helped enormously. But on the other hand, I I really truly understand. I have, in my district there are about 21 parks total, I believe. And for example, Lone Bluff, Kelly Parks, Bellevue, the Tully Battlefields, and and even, the West Evergreen Park. I understand that because of the lack of resources that we have in in the the grown of of acres of parks.

But the main ingredient is there, I believe, believe, is is our our unsheltered residents. Because, for example, at the, Lone Bluff, multiple times where the irrigation system had been compromised by our unsheltered resident going there and shut down the whole system, running water to their their their tents and so on, then our grass die. And not only that, for example, the Vietnamese heritage Garden, they vandalize not only the outside, they cut the fence going on the inside and and really vandalize all the electrical, the the electrical panels, all the lighting on the inside, which is gonna cost of, I don't know, half $1,000,000 to fix I would imagine. But I think that as we move along reducing amount of unsheltered residents, that would reduce a lot of the problematic that we have in these parks. Because I've gone out to multiple parks all the time and I see, doesn't matter how we cement the box or how do how we secure the box, then you sledgehammer and break into it, break the system, and then and then they also tie into the irrigation system as well to get their water.

And so I'm glad that you're thinking about redistricting. Secondly how do you, what you call dynamic dynamic deployment deployment of of resources, right? Where parks that are well maintained with involvement of neighborhood association and so on. We can reduce that amount of time in that particular well maintenance park to move it to the area that is less maintenance. And I think if we can have that type of program or have AI in a sense help us navigate which part need the resource, how do we bring it to par, how do we maintain it, and then what type of funding we can capture for in the future?

So tell me a little bit more about that, know, redistricting the areas and redeployment of your resources.

Sure. When we looked at redistricting, we actually, one of our staff members did this exercise based on PAM points. And PAM points stands for like a park amenity matrix and in every park we know approximately how long it takes to take care of each amenity. You know like a drinking fountain might take five minutes to clean out liners or pick up litter within a park. And then based on that we can come up with how many hours we need to spend in the park.

But then in parks that we know there's illegal dumping residents or there may be frequent vandalism, you know, received additional points and are waiting when we're figuring out how many staff. So based on that report that's how we begin to look at it. And a lot of our redistricting that we intend to do depending on what happens budget wise is going to be based on that. In the meantime until that happens, we have been using that same, I don't know, take look at our parks and we've been deploying service we currently can before redistricting. Like we do many, many more volunteer activities in your council district, in council member Ortiz, council member campuses district than we had previously done.

We also direct services like our resilience core to those districts to work on some of these projects more than we had in the past.

I wonder if I may add just quickly. Tori, thank you for mentioning the Resilience Core because I'm not going to say that we're doing dynamic deployment today. I like the challenge though of thinking of that. So I want to work on that. But with the Resilience Core, we are very much sending them We try to give them more than a day notice, but send them where they're needed.

And and they've been a huge help in the preparations for the big game that just happened, huge amount of work in in the parks that kind of stitched the two districts of of Council District 6 and Council District 3. And what I wanted mention to your point is there are we love volunteers. There's even some corporations that have stepped up. And and a couple I wanna acknowledge, Adobe that takes care of the park that is right in front of its headquarters and the Irvine companies that take care of three parks actually in North San Jose. And in those situations where they've maybe technically adopted the park but really they're providing landscaping, we pull away our staff. We go do other work elsewhere and that's it's a huge benefit to us. Well

thank you. And and I think part of the solution is that as we reduce the amount of unshelter, we'll resources including reduce the amount of vandalizing or parks and and everything else. And hopefully that that will create some open space for you guys to to do a better job. And and I'm not saying that you guys are not. With the resource that you have over 200 parks and and many recreational facility, it's it's a daunting task.

Just wanna say thank you. And especially just wanna say thank you to the all the all the volunteers that come out there on the weekends and spend time in the creek in the park and picking up the garbage. And I think we should also activate our neighborhood association to go out there and pick up the garbage. You know, that's part of the cleanliness that will give you give our park a different type of perception, if you will. Thank you.

Thank you, vice chair. Great comments. Council member Casey.

Thank you, chair. I'm not sure how to phrase this. I'm doing a ride along tomorrow, and I'm interested in trying to understand park maintenance. But it's unclear to me how we track staff efficiency and identify opportunities for optimization. I I don't see and haven't seen anything that speaks to that. I understand the end result. We're looking at the parks, and we're constantly, you know, bemoaning the fact that we don't have money for resources. But it's still not clear to me whether or not we're optimizing the resources that we are deploying.

Thank you for the the question, council member. So we we track and we look at efficiency in a number of ways. The broadest one, what we actually instituted after the Great Recession about ten years ago, was what we call our business intelligence initiative. And that's actually the position that Claire has now where we do have recording of staff efforts every day. So they give daily logs of their activities, their park locations, their activities, including drive time that we compile compile and analyze through dashboards and through the the maintenance management system that we use.

We use that data to to highlight how much time is getting into the parks and also assess the maintenance activities that we're expecting versus what we're accomplishing. Different teams will end up looking differently within that system. So for instance, many of our parks are seen on Mondays and Fridays. And then we try once every week or two to get in and do a project day, a landscaping day in the middle so we can use the data to check are we hitting those parks. Mowing team, which is one team that we get asked a lot about unfortunately because most of our mowers were down last year.

We have a target of seeing every park once every two weeks. So we're able to look in the data and see did we get to those parks and what percentage of those parks did we get on time or within that two week period? So that's, can I say, the the the main way we look at it, the efficiency of the teams? Beyond that, certainly we have park concerns from the community community when things are not happening. We have a lot of ways to get an input.

Whenever concerns on park productivity let me be more clear. Employee productivity come in, we take those incredibly seriously. We ask for as much as possible for folks to share. And if you ever see anything, please do share. If you see a truck number, a truck that's hanging out or a truck number ever have a concern, we're able to track every one of our pieces of vehicles and equipment.

Our vehicles are equipped with GPS. So we're able to see in real time, but we don't actually do this in real time, where the truck is going, how long is it idling, how long is it at a park. And we can also see did the truck go to the park? Or in in cases, and unfortunately, there are cases like this as we know that there there are always situations like that. Did the truck go to seven Eleven instead instead of the park? Or did the truck go to the park but seven Eleven was thirty minutes of the of the journey? So with the GPS data, we can really scrutinize the day to day efforts of employees, employees, how much time are they spending in the park itself versus all the other activities.

Okay. So this is compiled on a daily basis and reviewed how often?

The the BI data?

So all of the data you're saying, like, for example, they

Mhmm.

File daily logs in terms of what they did each day, and then you have the GPS tracking information. If this information is being logged each day, how often is it being reviewed to determine whether or not it's being meeting whatever the initial expectations were?

So we have several ways of that we're doing this. In each park district, the supervisor and the senior maintenance worker are expected to do an inspection on each park every month. You know, it's it's a quick inspection, not as in-depth as our park condition assessment, but just to take a look. We also do random, what we call BI checks, where, you know, every employee every day has to fill out what they've done. Like we said, we generally know how long it takes to do each activity. And the supervisor will go out to a park and take a look.

Yeah. Again, this is we're looking at the back end. I'm talking about the actual employees' activities. So you say you log the activities and the activity log and the GPS. Who's monitoring that information to see that they're actually being efficiently deployed and how often they're being monitored is the question, not the end result. You say that they do their log report. You say they have GPS information. Who's looking at this information and how often do we look at it to determine whether or not they're being efficiently deployed? And if it's it can't be the person that's responsible for logging it in. Right? In terms of accountability, I would imagine somebody has to have oversight outside that's objectively viewing it. Or is that not the case?

So the different data sets are reviewed on different frequencies. Our business the the daily logs get inputted. And I wanna say, I wanna look to Claire, it's not real time. So it is about a two week lag from the collection of the data to the full input and evaluation. So it's not a real time view.

On the GPS side, there is a real time capability, but it is our practice, certainly as a department and I believe as a city, that we are not sitting and watching trucks and employees drive around. What we do receive though, every Monday morning, our staff receives exception reports that flag individual cases of basically compliance breaks. Is an employee idling too long? Are they speeding? Are they taking violent turns?

Are they not buckling up? So we get compliance reports weekly. And many supervisors sit down with their, what I'm gonna call the BI, the data entry on on staff activities, and the GPS data about once a week and do some cross comparisons.

So the GPS data is one thing and then the logs in terms of our activity, the supervise who's checking the supervisor? Because that's his anybody checking the supervisor to make sure that these that it's being efficient? What's the oversight? I don't I'm not hearing

I review everything every month. Avi often reviews everything every month. Their park manager is supposed to be looking at things consistently. And so it's within our chain of command that that information is being reviewed.

I gotta be honest. Just off this conversation, I don't get the warm and fuzzies that we're actually on top of this and and really attacking this and optimizing and being as efficient as we can be. Is that am I misreading this?

Well, we're actually we're happy to share with you, and maybe tomorrow's ride along is a step along the way. Happy to share with you what we do. Tori mentioned what what she's doing on a monthly basis. She's meeting, I guess, a skip level meeting, meeting with her immediate report who's the manager and the supervisors. And they review various data sets. They review employee completion of their logs, employee completion of their vehicle inspections, as well as the supervisor's work completing their required monthly park inspections. So absolutely, Tory's reviewing that with them. Different data on different frequencies. That's a monthly sit down. But we can happy to sit down and go through what we do and share our structure.

So we've kind of broached the topic of efficiency, but I haven't heard anything in terms of optimization. Now based on the information we've gathered, where are we looking for opportunities to be more efficient? I haven't heard any of that either.

So that's a great question. So the redistricting of park teams that we've talked about is getting back to using what we have the best that we can to meet the various demands. This year, we piloted a great initiative with Beautify San Jose where we know our team, especially in areas that are impacted by vandalism or graffiti, our teams get pulled away from the landscaping beautification into either repair or graffiti abatement. So with Beautify San Jose, we piloted a proactive graffiti eradication program that has proven to be very successful, and we're looking to extend that in this future. So through this budget process that we're working in, we are looking for those efficiencies between park maintenance and Beautify San Jose.

We see some more opportunities, and I certainly don't wanna get ahead of the budget process. And and ultimately, that's the council's decision on what to to advance there. But we see locations where our teams in Beautify San Jose both go to the same locations. And some of the work is fairly similar, whether it comes to graffiti eradication, illegal dumping, pickup. We are both very consistently on trails and we think we can optimize how we do those works together and not be in the same places over and over again.

And just to add, one of the things we do track on a monthly basis is direct versus indirect time. And we've looked at we have a target and it's based on what the industry standard is for each level. And really our field staff should be about in the field between 7075% of the time direct time. And so based on some of what we were seeing, we restructured morning meetings. Some districts were having morning meetings that were a little bit too long.

And so now now staff are expected they begin their day at six. They're expected to be heading out into the field by 06:30, and then they're not supposed to return to their yard at the end of the day until about 02:00 because there is some paperwork for them to do at the end of the day. We also did based on the 2020 park maintenance audit, we took a look at routes and drive time and we restructured probably about 80% of our park routes to save time of staff in vehicles. We've also changed things around where we have certain people in the district who are the ones responsible for going and purchasing like irrigation parts or you know things where staff would stop in the middle of the day and then go purchase things and so we cut that back so staff no longer have a reason, we want them to be out in the field more. Same thing with illegal dumps.

Historically teams would pick up illegal dumps and take it to one of our yards in the city to dump and we've now said no don't Don't do that. Let's keep it at your service yard, and we have one person take it once a week to do the dumping. So we've noticed incredible time savings in doing that.

Thank you. I guess just a punctuating comment. If we're contemplating a bond or additional funds, it's going to be very important for us to demonstrate that we're currently operating in an efficient manner and optimizing to the best of the ability instead of throwing good money after bad being the perception. So that's the challenge I'm gonna have as we move forward and have any discussions about additional funding. So thank you.

Great comments, councilmember Casey. Yes. 100% agree. We gotta make sure that, we can steward the public's money efficiently. I believe we had a motion and a second. No other comments. Let's vote. Thank you.

The motion passes unanimously.

Alright. Child care policy opportunities status report. Item number three with a presentation from mister Peter Hamilton.

Good afternoon. My name is Peter Hamilton. I'm an assistant to the city manager in the city manager's office, and we're here today to talk about childcare. This first, maybe a little history on this report. This report was directed by the city council as part of action on our, September update on focus areas.

At that meeting, council member Campos had, raised the possibility of, creating a new problem area within our focus area framework, focused on child care. The administration's feedback was that changes to the focus areas are are probably best handled through the budget process. So in the alternative, the city council directed us, to come back to this committee with a child care report. And so that's that's what we're here to do today. And I think important frame for this is we're not this report isn't a work plan or a strategy.

It's really a very high level survey of what the city or other agencies are currently doing to kind of define the categories of activity for a local agency in this policy area. So with that, we'll just briefly look at what some other jurisdictions in The United States are doing. Countries have different approaches to child care. The United States, the federal government does not, provide extensive subsidies. So I think what we see, especially recently, is state and local jurisdictions are really moving into this space.

And the ones listed here, California just this year implementing a universal transitional kindergarten program, which I believe applies to four year olds. San Francisco in 2018, passed a dedicated tax that, rules, I think, almost $200,000,000 a year for which they provide fully subsidized care up to a 150% of area median income. New Mexico just last fall announced their intent to provide universal fully subsidized child care for all families in New Mexico and funded in large part by revenues from oil and gas extraction to the tune of several $100,000,000. And then Michigan, an interesting program. They have a voluntary program for employers where employers can pay one third of an employee's child care costs.

The state will pick up a third, and then the employee will pay a third, hence the the Tri Share program. And to to be eligible, the employee has to, of course, work for a participating employer and also be between 204100% of the federal poverty line. So that's a little bit of context to what other people have recently done. And now we'll move on just categories of of effort here and with a focus on what what the city is currently doing and just if we see that there's an opportunity, maybe a brief note of additional efforts. So the the first category we'll look at is provision of these services at city facilities directly by the city.

And you can see here our, Parks and Recreation Neighborhood Services Department, has a variety of programs, notably San Jose Recreation Preschool which is for three to five year olds and, served about 211, students in past fiscal year. And then the other programs which are after school programs or to serve during breaks in school during the summer or during the year. And I I think important thing to point out here is that these are not licensed childcare under the state framework. There's a carve out in state law for local agencies that allows us under certain restrictions to provide childcare at our facilities without being licensed by the state. And that's that's the way we do it.

But there that does impose restrictions. So I think most notably for Recreation Preschool, for programs provided under this exemption for students of four years nine months or less, you can only provide care for twelve hours a week. So what that means is, San Jose Recreation Preschool is I believe three hours a day, four days a week. And in the memo that this committee approved during the joint meeting with the county late last there were questions about the possibility of moving into licensed child care, so the memo speaks, with that, on that at at some length. And just to note, it would be a substantial change to the service model.

There would be changes both in facilities and in operations. And particularly for facilities, there are very specific requirements for what a licensed facility must have. For example, a fenced outdoor play area. So there may be need for facility modifications to to be able to accomplish that. And just as the new memo notes, moving to licensed child care is not currently in the PRNS work plan and would need to be resourced both from a staffing and capital perspective.

Second category is subsidies. And this is looking around at what other people are doing recently, like the the four examples I put up on that first slide, subsidies generally for for these larger efforts, subsidies are generally the core of the program because it's the kind of the most direct way to make childcare more affordable, to people who struggle to afford it. San Jose does, provide subsidies, in the form of scholarships for the programs that PRNS offers, which you can see listed here, you know, on a smaller scale than some of the examples I listed earlier, but nevertheless, you know, almost a thousand participants subsidized, which, you know, is a is a real important benefit for them. And just I think illustrates the the range of possibilities here from, you know, the about a little over $1,000,000 that we spend to the hundreds of millions of dollars that San Francisco spends. There's quite a range programs that can be implemented.

Also, another area where we've been active in recent years in 2223, the council allocated 900,000 to support development of affordable child care programs in within a city funded affordable housing development. We have so far with that money completed one development, the Tamien Station development with with a child care child care facility and within within the affordable housing development, and there is, additional money, for additional projects. The zoning code. So the zoning code regulates where day care facilities can locate. They are allowed in most zoning districts with a special use permit, which is a discretionary use permit approved at directors hearing and appealable to the planning commission.

There are exemptions to this, however. Centers co located with a religious use or with a school are exempt from the need for a discretionary permit as are family day care homes, and that's where day care is provided within a residential setting, I believe for up to 14, children. There's just just recently last year was the state published the state passed an AB seven fifty two which creates a new exemption for day care facilities co located with multifamily housing. And so the city will need to amend its zoning code to comply with that exemption, and that's on PBCE's work plan for this spring to comply with that exemption. In conversation with PBCE staff, you know, they noted that these exemptions, an SUP can be expensive, especially for a small business owner, and can be can, you know, take some time.

So real an exemption is is valuable potentially for a small business owner. And they note that there if if the if the city desired to, there probably is additional space to carve out additional exemptions. We would need to do that carefully because we'd want to retain discretion in areas where it's important to ensure neighborhood compatibility, but there's probably additional exemptions we could carve out. But as discussed in the memo, that's you know, would be subject to council direction and also, PBCE's ordinance work plan, which, you know, is is extensive. Many, many other jurisdictions offer and other agencies offer, kind of training or business development programs where the goal is to train, child care workforce, to both improve quality and to improve the availability of staff to staff child care businesses, and also provide direct business development assistance to people who may be running a small business, a small child care business to help them be successful in that business.

And these are the city has two programs devoted, to to that purpose. One is the fam, friends, family, and neighbors program, which will be our next item on this agenda, so I won't linger on that one. But also note the Boost program, which is a program funded by about a million dollars in federal CDBG funding, in the first year was last year, which provides business business support, like in coaching, technical assistance, assistance running and expanding businesses to the operators of family child care homes. So those are the kind of the small child care facilities run-in a residential setting. And this program, I think regarded as quite successful, served 131 businesses last year.

48% of those businesses report a revenue increase of 20% or more according to our program data. So a worthwhile effort. Finally, Finally, note the intersection here with the Children and Youth Services Master Plan, I know this committee has discussed extensively recently, but wanted to call out two two key intersections. One is the no wrong door approach, particularly in the demonstration sites, to help connect eligible residents to the, the child care programs that they may they may be eligible for. And second, just the the ongoing efforts, of staff to coordinate on this issue.

It can include internal coordination as noted here, the the training for the no wrong door approach that will be provided to staff, but also external coordination as we'll discuss on the next slide. So to end, I had the opportunity in preparing this report to meet with staff from each of these agencies which, do good work on child care. The Office of Children and Families Policy at the county, one of the the key initiatives of this office over the next few months will be a child care blueprint which will look at, the needs of, the needs of vulnerable populations for child care that intersect with other county services like the foster youth system the foster, care system, or other other services. And PRNS staff has the opportunity to participate in this effort as an advisory advisory capacity. So glad to be able to coordinate on that.

And just to note, the director of this office, Heidi Emberling, was, able to join us in the audience, today. And then also the, Santa Clara County Office of Education, does quite a bit of work. Referrals program to help to, refer residents to child care that, may meet their needs, and also various, training and quality initiatives, and First Five implemented a number of also training and quality initiatives to improve access to child care. And that concludes our report, but happy to receive questions.

Thank you so much for the staff presentation. Do we have any public comment?

Yes. We have four speaker cards for Jaria, Vanessa Kellen, and Marilo Cuesta. If you guys can come up to the podium, you'll each have two minutes to speak. The timer and translation is displayed above. Thank you.

Hello, chair Ortiz, vice chair Duan, and honorable city council members. My name is Jiraiya Haug, and I am a resident of District 4. And I am the primary coordinator for Build the Future. Build the Future is a campaign dedicated to advocating for affordable quality childcare for all. And I also first wanted to say thank you to council member Campos for always championing childcare, especially here in the city of San Jose.

At Build the Future, we actually passed the childcare resolution in 14 out of 15 cities in Santa Clara County, including the city of San Jose. We passed in December 2023 to declare child care as a necessities for cities to invest in. In the resolution we passed, it read that investing in affordable, accessible, and diverse forms of quality childcare improves business productivity, consumer spending, decreases poverty, leads to safer communities, and provides additional revenues to cities. We urge you to vote yes on council member Campos's memo to elevate the child care policy opportunity status report to the March 17 city council March budget message. It's so important for our cities to continue to invest in our residents and invest in child care.

Child care housing are the top two costs for our families living here in the city of San Jose and across the nation. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, chair and members of the city council. My name is Vanessa Tapia, and I'm an organizer with the South Bay Labor Council. And I'm here today on behalf of working families to urge your support for council member Campos' memo to include childcare as a goal within the city's growing our economy focus area. For working families, childcare is not a luxury. It is a foundation that allows them to participate in the workforce.

Foundation that allows them to participate in the workforce foundation at all. When workers cannot find affordable, reliable childcare, they are forced to cut hours, turn down promotions, or leave their jobs entirely, and that hurts families, employers, and our local economy. If we are serious about economic growth in San Jose, we must invest in the infrastructure that makes work possible. Childcare allows parents to remain in their workforce, strengthens productivity, and helps stabilize household income. It keeps working families in our city and supports small businesses that rely on a on a dependable workforce.

We also must recognize that child care provides providers are workers. They are predominantly women and women of color who are often underpaid despite performing essential labor and sustains our entire economy. Investing in child care is also an investment in this critical workforce. Supporting this memo sends a clear message that San Jose values working families and understands that economic growth must be inclusive and worker centered. We urge you to support council member Campos's memo. Thank you.

Thank you. We have one more speaker card for Ricky Ramirez.

Thank you.

Right this afternoon to ask you

to please reconsider the decision to close the support network for caregivers, family members, friends, and neighbors, FFN. Am also here to express my support for Councillor Campos Memorandum, which calls for the promotion of childcare to be considered as a goal by the council. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I'm gonna express personal experience with FFN program. Participating in FFN program program has been a main meaningful experience for me. Through this program, I I have gained valuable knowledge and practical skill that have strengthened my ability to support children and family in my care. The program has helped me better understand child development, age appropriate activities, and the importance of creating a safe and structured environment. Overall, the FFM program has helped me improve my the quality of of care I provide, strengthened me my relationship with families and inspire me to continue pursuing professional development and early child education.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Childcare Providers United.

I am a childcare provider in the city of San Jose, and I am representing hundreds of family childcare providers who belong to the child providers and United Union. Well, I'm here to bring up an urgent need that is seriously impacting our business economy. We are suppliers and have been considered essential suppliers since thanks to us during COVID it was possible for businesses to stay afloat, for our city not to collapse, because thanks to our work that we were open, doctors, nurses, and all kinds of essential workers were able to show up to work because we were taking care of their children, we exposed our own lives, we kept our own doors open now I feel that we have been forgotten. I would like to have more involvement in these types of decisions because I want to let you know that we don't have funds. Local subsidy agencies do not have funds for family childcare.

We are about 2,000 child care providers in Santa Clara County who rely on agencies like Choices and Bookings and have no funding until 2027. There are a large number of providers who are working with one child, with two children, with three children, with four children, five children, when its maximum capacity is 14 children. Are suppliers who have been educated. Most of us belong to the Quality Matters program, which is provided by First Five, and we have gone to the school to educate them. So I would like to put this need on the Thank table with you so that you please. Thank you back to the committee.

Thank I see some friends and actually residents of my district, so welcome to the NSE committee. I will now turn it over to my colleagues starting with council member Campos.

Thank you, chair. And thank you to city staff, Peter, Emily, Angel, Andrea, and everyone who helped put together this comprehensive status report. I continue to be impressed by our staff who are working diligently to support children and families in San Jose despite our limited resources. As Peter mentioned, during the September 30 council meeting last year, we supported the revised focus area framework or model two point o, the city administration's approach to addressing the systemic challenges prioritized by the council. And this framework defines problem statements, long term goals, and relevant metrics that allow the community to measure progress and ensure accountability if we are not achieving our goals.

In that meeting, council directed staff to bring this report to NSC outlining categories of work that the city could undertake to improve access to childcare. That brings us to today's meeting and why I encourage my colleagues to cross reference this report to the city council for consideration during the March budget message discussion. Specifically, given the importance of aligning focus areas with adequate resources, I would like for council to consider childcare within the context of growing our economy focus area. The first first problem statement in the growing our economy focus area relates to business development and work for workforce preparedness. It reads, to remain competitive, San Jose must strengthen engagement with key growth industries and prepare local talent for jobs of the future.

The goals we have focus on AI tools and training, engaging and manufacturing AI employers, and workforce development for unstably housed residents. However, access to affordable childcare is a known and significant barrier to entry to the workforce and is currently omitted from the goals even though there are concrete valuable and near term actions the city can take to improve access. As we heard from Vicky Ramirez, during COVID, because of the childcare workforce, we had doctors, we had business owners, and all other essential workers able to show up and do their job for our community. We're already investing in essential workforce development programs that support child care providers like the libraries, FFN, family friends and neighbors caregiver support network. PRNS staff already runs recreational preschool, rock after school, and other programs that serve children and families often with critical scholarships that provide major discounts so that parents and guardians can continue to work and have that level of affordability children in safe nurturing environments.

PBCE is already looking at zoning regulations and implementing state laws that eliminate restrictions, facilitate colocation of childcare with multifamily housing. And even though we all acknowledge the importance and the value of these programs and efforts, we have several at risk due to the budget deficit. What's missing is a strategic alignment of city priorities with our community needs that we heard today during public comment. And as we refine and reinforce the growing our economy focus area, it's on us to consider an additional problem statement. How do we increase access and reduce the cost of child care for working families, particularly at a time where housing and child care remain the top two expenses in a family's budget?

By incorporating this goal into the focus area, we acknowledge child care access as a barrier to entry into the workforce. We can be better positioned to support our early care and education system as the essential small businesses that serve our city, our residents, and our workforce as a whole, and we can begin to quantify and understand the impact to our local economy, including the cost to workers and employers when they lack access to affordable childcare. We can never forget that childcare is the essential work that makes all other work possible. And so I thank you all for your partnership on this issue. And with that, I move to approve my memo to accept the status report and cross reference the report to the March 17 city council meeting.

Second. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for a motion and a second. Thank you for your memo, council member Campos. So have some quick comments. I wanna just begin by thanking staff for your thoughtful and thorough analysis on this report.

It clearly lays out both the opportunities and the constraints and I appreciate the transparency about what would actually be required to move any of these ideas forward. The report makes it clear that realizing many of these child care opportunities would mean meaningful and sizable investments. And I recognize that in the context of the budget deficit that we're currently facing. It can feel difficult to about new programs and new investments. But it's important that we frame childcare not simply as a cost center, but as an investment in economic vitality, economic development, and long term prosperity for our city.

When working families lack reliable access to childcare, parents can't fully participate in the workforce. That lost participation compounds the affordability pressures our families are already navigating in. It limits household income, increases financial instability, and contributes to the very real fear of displacement that many San Jose families are experiencing today. And that's why I personally support the council member's memo and framing of childcare as an economic development issue. Childcare is workforce infrastructure.

It is just as fundamental to economic participation as transportation infrastructure, housing or public safety. In fact, this is a way we can make San Jose more affordable without forcing things like rent rent control or continued allocations of funding for affordable housing which can be debated that those are good as well. If we are serious about growing our economy while ensuring our current residents can benefit from that growth, then we must strengthen the systems that make work possible for these same families. And so while we do have constraints with this budget, I look forward to the discussion during the budget process to consider how this may align with growing our economy focus area. Just wanted to ask, right, because if we think about childcare, not everybody needs the same level of access to childcare.

Not everybody needs subsidized childcare. It's like public schools, right? Not everybody sends their kids to public schools. Some people send their kids to private school or I guess nontraditional charter schools. Right? Have we looked at have we done like a thorough needs assessment here at the city of San Jose? If we were to do something, and I know it's we're not there today, right? But maybe in the future, if we were to do something like universal childcare, well, how how much would that cost the city or or how much of population would actually need that level of support?

Yes, that's an excellent question, council member. I would say just the kind of the pretty high level scope of this report is more of a committed to spend less than 40 staff hours, it's more of a survey. We didn't really get into that kind of the needs analysis in great depth, but I do have maybe something that I can share with you to frame that a little bit. So kidsdata.org does do data analysis by county where they take census data for the number of children zero to twelve and they compare it with the number of licensed child care spots. So you can get a percentage, What are the number of children that can be accommodated in the number of licensed child care spots by County?

So if you look at California statewide, you have 25% of children or about 20 five-twenty 6%, zero to twelve can be accommodated in licensed child care. Santa Clara County 36.4. And then just you mentioned San Francisco where they have an extensive subsidy program, it's 54.1. So that gives kind of a relative sense of where we are with licensed childcare, but of course as you also pointed out in your question, there are many different kinds of needs, there are many different kinds of childcare solutions. So that's one that's easily available in the data.

I think some of your other questions like what is a more complex understanding of the real need, I think that would definitely require more

work. And

you also ask like if we wanted to have a more extensive subsidy program what would that look like? And I think that's why I kind of did a little write up in San Francisco in the report because they went out for a dedicated revenue source and they just recently expanded eligibility and you I think it's a couple $100,000,000 and they're serving about 9,000 children around that. And they fully subsidize up to 150% of AMI and I think they're considering in the future partial subsidy even above that. So that's I think a good probably rough scale for what a really large and ambitious program would look like.

Great. I appreciate you taking that question off the cuff. Thank you, Peter. And yeah, appreciate that. Thank you for the presentation. I will then move to council member Casey.

I didn't hear anyone point out that San Francisco is also a county, and they're a $16,000,000,000 budget county city. Did you have any examples of cities cities similar to us that offer any these types of services? Non county cities?

No. Not in the report. I mean, I there there may be this was not a completely thorough review of all programs. It was more just looking at the highlights. So I unfortunately can't offer you an example of that,

Councilman. But it is sort of misleading when you put San Francisco as a city and compare them to us without including the information that they're a county, and these types of services are generally county provided services. Am I right or not?

I think it's really up to the jurisdiction about I don't think there would be any barrier to a city or county providing these services. I think it's more of a decision for the jurisdiction what they believe their proper scope is.

Okay.

And if I can just weigh in locally, the county office of education is where the state passes through the subsidies and manages those programs. So it's not the county of Santa Clara.

Yeah. That wait. Say that again. The county

It's the Santa Clara County os Office of Education

Right.

That does the state pass through

Right.

For subsidies, and the county is a partner.

Yeah. That's my point. These types of services are generally county provided. This isn't a municipality.

County Office of Education, which is a different jurisdiction than the counties.

But if we come back, it'd be nice if we had another city comparable to ours that offers any of these types of service.

Yeah. Absolutely. If this is cross reference, I'd be happy to do a little additional research and see what I can find. Thank you.

Great question. I think that's a fair fair ask from the council member. Council member Dewan?

Thank you, vice. Thank you, Andreas and Peter and Angel for putting this together. And thank you for all the speakers. Speakers. I think it's important that we create some type of program despite you know, we don't have the support our county or other entity to make this happen. A while back we had a program I believe the city put in $15.20000 for referral, childcare program. Do you remember that? That was like three years or two years ago.

I'm sorry council member. I don't have any information on that but happy to follow-up and see what we can find if you would like.

Yes because I wanna see how that program work. Especially how do we have this network of childcare that people can access. I think the more access we have hopefully you know supply and demand it would reduce the cost because I know right now childcare is so expensive that it take one parent to work full time just to pay for the childcare. While the other parents, the other parents is is paying for the rent and everything else. And so I think that we as a community had to figure better plan than than just a, you know, I I understand just a referral.

But an action plan that we can implement in a smaller scale and then we can grow as hopefully as the economy a recover. I just say, hang in there. We're we're trying to figure out solution where we can support working families and including our immigrants here that having a very difficult time to survive this expensive environment and fighting our federal at the same time. Thank you.

Great. Thank you so much. If I oh, sorry.

Yeah. Chair, I I just wanna add a little bit more context to this issue because this was an issue that actually was raised and and is and is embedded within the children youth master plan. And, you know, there's there's there's both an economic and an educational case to be made around the importance of childcare. On the economic side, of course, you know, there's the the whole issue of access and the cost. And, you know, and at a time where we know that that many of our residents are faced with the hardship of just affordability, we know that childcare costs after housing is the second highest cost.

That definitely has an impact on all families, especially those families with lower incomes. Also on the economic side, it's also a job engine issue. Right? There's a little bit of chicken and the egg. Right? It's like the the the lack of access to affordable childcare also becomes a delimiter for why some people can't join the the workforce. Right? Mhmm. So if that was mitigated, then then you have an opportunity to actually join workforce and bring bring more revenue to the household. On the educational front, we we definitely know the the research is pretty solid in this area around the earlier the start, the the better your academic performance in the long run.

Right? And when we take a look at our state, when we take a look at our city, when we take a look at where we are faring on the educational front statistically, it's we we got a long way to go. And we're not gonna change that until we start doing what some other states have been doing, which is placing a higher priority on early learning much sooner than we are. And that's the only way we're gonna start to gain back, you know, that and climb up that that statistical ladder, ladder, so to speak. The other thing I wanna demystify here is this, is that by raising this issue up in this forum doesn't imply that the city of San Jose has to provide this service.

And I think it's an important point to make. And and in the audience, I see Heidi from from the county. She is heading up a a group of all child care providers from different you know, everything from family child care all the way to license and everything in between. And and I think her work is very monumental right now because what we need and and and council member Ortiz, your your first question actually spoke to this a little bit when you asked, is there an inventory? I think her work, by convening everybody, is gonna give us the ability to really baseline, okay, where are all the resources?

How accessible are they? Where where is the funding coming from? And where do San Jose fit in that whole picture? Right? And once we have a good understanding of that, then we could also take a look at that same data and determine where are the gaps and what gaps need to be filled.

And then ask ourselves the question, does the city of San Jose have a role in filling in that gap Or do one of our other external partners have a role in filling that gap? But I think it's our responsibility as an overall city, whether you look at it from a moral compass or whether you look at it from an economic compass, to really really make sure that in a thriving city, we address this issue head on. And I think this work begins to move us in that direction. So I just wanted to add that additional context.

Great. Thank you so much, Angel. Councilmember Campos.

Thank you, chair. I just wanted to thank my colleagues for the questions and the healthy discussion on this very important issue for our community. Maybe shedding a little light on why San Francisco was a city chosen for the compare the comparison. My understanding is that the funding that the city of San Francisco is using the funding source is a 3.5% gross receipts tax on commercial space rentals and so that is a tax that cities and I'm not sure if counties are authorized to to do that, but I know that cities are and so I believe that that is a city generated revenue not a county not not using their hat as a county, but I know that San Francisco is kind of a tricky city to compare ourselves perfectly to, and so I just cities like Long Beach, San Diego, Oakland, and even Mountain View as potential models that we that are more similar to the city of San Jose and can provide us that kind of comparison that council is requesting. So thank you.

Great. Thank you so much council member Campos. I think we had a motion and a second. Yep. Let's move forward.

That motion passes unanimously.

Great. Thank you so much staff for their presentation. Item number four, family, friends, and neighbors caregiver support network status report. And that's gonna be provided by Joe Born and Ann Grabowski.

Hello again, members of the committee. I'm to recap, I'm Jill Born, city librarian, and I'm joined by our deputy director, Anne Grabowski. And we wanted to give a shout out to our early education manager, Araceli Delgado Ortiz. Today, we're here to talk about the family friend and neighbor FFN caregiver support network program. Sorry about that.

Now this program is rooted in the city's education policy and the goal of ensuring that all children enter school ready to learn. It was launched in January 2021 by the library to address childcare access gaps that have been identified and strengthen the quality of informal caregiving supporting children's readiness for kindergarten. It was developed in very close partnership with key partners such as First Five, Santa Clara County Office of Education, and with support of our San Jose Public Library Foundation. As noted in the staff report, the program is staffed by three full time library staff, and annual program costs are supplemented by philanthropic funding at a total cost of $633,000 a year. And status of the program, though, is that the adopted twenty five, twenty six budget, which was the second year of a two year budget cycle, eliminates the FFN program staffing effective 07/01/2026.

I'll hand it over to Anne.

Thanks, Jill. The FFN program is comprised of five main components, which are listed here on the slide. Through format of a nine month cohort structure, participants joined monthly trainings that provide them with key learnings directed at skill development in early education and providing safe and quality learning environments for children. Participants received CPR and first aid training as well as trainings in, well, child development and emergency management among a plethora of other relevant topics. Aligned with the college and career pathway priority area of the city's education strategy, participants also received access career to college early education courses which removes a barrier to workforce advancement and allowed many participants to move forward into associate teacher status.

A key component of the program, some may call it the secret sauce of what's made it so successful, has been the extremely high touch navigation support provided by dedicated program staff that are extremely committed to strong customer service and public service in general. Throughout this program's history, staff have committed hundreds of hours to helping people navigate very complex systems that are not user friendly, like permitting, licensing, workforce, device access and connectivity, and education. The program staff recognized also that to retain participants, the learning environment needed to be responsive, supportive, culturally relevant and reflective, be in language and community, and that strong and committed navigation support were important components of participants being able to achieve their goals. Moving forward through this transition, the strongest alignment of the program components to the library's work is to continue to explore ways to provide participants with support through the provision of college coursework and workforce development support through our college and career pathways work. The library will work to embed or occasionally offer FFN related programming or workshops as a function of our regular early education and caregiver support programming as well as a function of our college and career pathways work.

The city and the library have played a role as a convener, connector, and a trusted resource in the early learning community for decades. We're proud of that. The transition of this program doesn't change our ongoing and long standing commitment to that role, and we look forward to continuing to work with community partners to advance outcomes for children and families in San Jose. And with with that, we are available for questions.

Thank you so much for staff presentation. Do we have any public comments?

Yes. We have 11 speaker cards. The first group of speakers to please line up in front of the podium are Eula Dillo Dio Agostino, looks like Sarah Grover, Paula Perez, Alba Vivas, and Michael Vega. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Eula Idamoto. I am a resident of District 6. I'm here today to provide public comment in support of the City Of San Jose's family friend and neighbor program. In my role as director of early learning and care at First Five Santa Clara County, I've had the honor of working with this program for the last three years.

Childcare and early learning are vital and irreplaceable parts of our infrastructure as a city and as communities. FFNs fill the gaps that allow parents to work at night, on the weekend, and pick up last minute shifts that can lead to bills being paid. It can make the difference between families staying afloat or families falling behind. It is an up streets of upstream support that ensures families have what they need to participate and contribute to our society, community, and economy. Supporting the work of FFNs is essential to evolving our commitment to childcare, and it fulfills a promise of equity.

It's as studies done by UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Childcare Employment show that immigrant and refugee communities rely heavily on FFNs for cultural and linguistically relevant care for their babies. Last year, we held a policy event that featured an FFN panel who shared all the joys and challenges of serving families in this unique part of our mixed delivery system. Among them are grandparents, aunties, uncles, chosen family, neighborhood abuelas, and so much of an unseen workforce that supports families in San Jose. Programs like this help them connect, learn, and support each other, breaking them out of isolation. The FFN shared repeatedly that the space SJPL has created is wholly unique, a gift to help them feel seen, acknowledged, and respected.

Programs like this recognize the dignity and humanity of our caregivers. Defunding programs like this will lead to a crucial part of our community not just being underserved, but actually not served at all. I urge you to seek ways to ensure this important work continue to can continue to serve the people of San Jose. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, everyone, our respected chair and council members. My name is Sona Grover. I'm a program director with Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, and our organization is one of the demonstration lead for children youth service master plan focusing on early learning and economic development priority areas. I'm here standing firm families along with our community partners like San Jose Public Library and First Five of Santa Clara County to strongly support the family, friends, and neighborhood caregiver programs. In San Jose, the cost of living is extremely high.

Quality childcare often cost as much as more than a rent or a mortgage, forcing families to make impossible choices between work and safe care for their children. FFN caregiver for families fill that gap. They are grandparents, aunties, uncles, relatives, and neighbors who provide the most culturally responsive and trusted care, especially for immigrant families navigating language barriers or fear for formal system. For many families, these caregivers are the only safe and accessible points. This program strengthen caregiver through training, home visits, and family resource center connections equipping them to support early literacy, social emotional growth, and health and safety.

By supporting FFN caregiver, we strengthen kindergarten readiness, education equity, and workforce stability. I respectfully urge you to continue to support and expand these efforts to help community. Fact

not

San Jose resident and owner provider of Mind the Builder the Center. I'm here on behalf of my union, CCPU Child Care Providers United, which represents thousands of family child care providers across California to strengthen our profession and ensure every child has access to quality early learning and care. Right now, our child care providers are under enormous pressure. We face potential federal funding cuts that threaten billions of dollars in support of our work. We see increasing harassment and violence towards child care providers across the country.

And here at home, we are constantly fighting to help policymakers under the true cost of care. What is actually takes to keep our doors open? Cutting childcare support is shortsighted financial move that threatens San Jose's economic infrastructure and stability for working families. Programs like the family, friends, and neighbors caregiver support network are essential lifelines for small businesses like mine and ensure safety and success of future generations. I had the privilege of running my program alongside my husband.

Our daughter grew up in our child care program and now helps us from time to time because she understands how essential early child care shapes a child's future. I urge you not to scale back this investment and continue funding these vital services so providers like me can keep our doors open and families can continue to rely on us. Thank you.

Thank you. The next group of speakers to make their way down, Veronica, Rocio, and Liliana. Thank you.

Thank you. And that's it. My name is Paula Perez, and I am an active mother, a member of Parent Voices, Santa Clara, and a member of the Local Early Education Planning Council and the Santa Clara Department of Education Office. Based on what appears in the state report, I ask the City Council to reconsider not closing the support network for caregivers, family members, friends, and neighbors. Many families rely on trusted caregivers for cultural or language reasons or because their work schedules don't align with traditional child care services.

Without this support, parents struggle to keep their jobs or advance in their careers. The program also supports caregivers, offering them training, guidance, and a community that helps them develop. Many have applied, many have been able to enter early education jobs or start the path to obtain a license as child care providers. Thank you for supporting Councillor Campos Memorandum to Make Child Care a Priority at the next budget message meeting. Thank you for your time and for supporting the families.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Supporting the caregivers in our community and ensuring the well-being of our children. Thank you, speaker.

Dear council members, my name is Alba Bibas, and I am a childcare provider and community member in San Jose. The family, friends, and neighbors, FEN program help me be by providing training, resources, and support to grow professionally. Thanks to this program, I was able to further my education, strengthen my skills, and create my own childcare business to serve the families in your community. For three years, I was unbeneficiary of the program, and that support transforming my life. I not only gave me educational tools and resources, but also the confidence and stability to positively impact children and parents who need safe quality care.

In 2025, when resource were caught and called no longer continue as a member, it was very painful because I know firsthand the true value value of this program. This program is essential for children, families, and caregivers because it opens opportunities, strengthens the local economy, and ensure that more children have access to dignified and prepared care. I respectfully respectfully request that the city of San Jose continue to fund and support the FFN program because it's chance life as in child mind and strengthens world in care and community. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. The next group of speakers to make their way down, Carmen Gallegos, Maria Wong, and Angelica Ramos. That's all the cards we have. If you do not hear your name, please make your way down. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Michael Vega, and I work at Sacred Heart Community Service, and I'm also a resident of District 10. I've had the privilege to work with family, friends, and neighbors child care providers. These providers allow others to work and provide for their families while receiving child care. It is critical to keep funding keep funding so that FFNs can continue to get the support they need to provide quality child care. Cut ting these funds will also hurt their our children whose families that utilize our FFN providers. I have seen how providers benefited from the various trainings they received, which helped them provide social and emotional support to the children they serve as well as best practices for inclusion for all of their children. Thank you for your time in supporting this memo.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Carmen Gallegos, and I'm a resident of San Jose. And today, I would like to speak about FFN, family, friends, and neighbors program that not only support children but truly include parents like me. The FFN didn't just provide services. They welcomed me as mother.

They give me education, guidance, and materials that help me better understand how to support my children at home. As parent, parent, we want the best of our children, but sometimes we don't always have the tools or knowledge to guide them. Through this FFN program, I receive learning materials, parenting education, education, and practical strategies that help me feel more confident. What makes FFN organization special is that they recognize parents has partner in education. Because of this support, I feel more prepared and more informed.

My children benefit not only from the materials provided, but from a mother who feels confident and supported by this program. Programs like FFN deserve continued support and recognition because they invest in families. And when families are strong, children strive. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, everyone. I am Maria Wong. As a committed parent, FFN caregiver, student, and enthusiastic advocate for caregivers, especially those supporting children with special needs. I am actively involved in the San Jose community. I connect with individuals who share my interest and help them advocate for themselves, their friends, and their families.

The FFN program has been crucial in my journey. The free classes offered at Mission College along with ongoing support have helped me regain my footing and learn from a variety of backgrounds experiences. This assistance has motivated me to return to college, something I once thought was impossible. My educational path started at De Anza College in 2013 while I worked full time, but had to pause my studies due to different challenges. In 2021, I encountered another significant hurdle when I was diagnosed with breast cancer while carrying my two young children.

I remain committed to my dream of returning to school after finishing my treatment. After six surgeries in 2020

I'm team.

Of And And opportunity to access four free FFN classes in early childhood education, totaling of 12 units, was transformative. I eagerly committed to it. I have now completed all available early childhood education courses through FFN and have accrued 24 units in the field. I am determined.

Thank you. That's your time. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, chair Ortiz, vice chair Duan, council members Campos, and council member Casey. My name is Angelica Ramos Allen. I am the director of policy and communications at Grail Family Services. I am here on behalf of the Sisipuere Collective. And we want to express our strong support for FFNs as brought here with your their wonderful stories, and that we also support FFNs within the Mayfair neighborhood.

I also wanna thank administration director Jill Bourne and deputy director Anne Grabowski for their thoughtfulness in talking talking about the FFN program and ensuring that there is a path towards sustainability within community. The outcomes presented in this report are significant, and as noted that there are caregiver knowledge, workforce credentials, community connection, and culturally responsive support. The FFN pathway is not secondary care. It is while informal, it it really focuses on immigrant and working class families, and it is the most trusted and accessible form of childcare that many people of the past generations have used. If the Children Youth Services master plans to demonstrate measurable outcomes, continuity and trusted partnerships in those neighborhoods are essential.

We are built on the no wrong door framework that was approved by this city, we are able to provide coordinated services navigation and not fragmented referrals. The demonstration sites work when they are neighborhood embedded. And when workforce development, caregiver support, and early learning are aligned, it's it's not siloed and provides better outcomes. Transitions can be thoughtful, but they should strengthen what is working on the ground and unintentionally disrupt not unintentionally disrupt trust. We thank you so much for your leadership and your commitment to equity.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Liliana Camacho. I'm the community organizer with Parent Voices. I'm asking the council to reconsider the proposed closure of the family, friends, and neighbors support network. Many families choose FFN care not because it's the last resort, but because it's the right choice for them.

Due to the culture, language, nontraditional work hours, or the deep trust that comes from leaving a child with someone who truly knows them, this is especially important for families of children with disability who need caregivers who understand their child's unique and specific needs. FFN providers are paid very little and are too often dismissed as low quality, yet they are the backbone of care for thousands of working families in San Jose. The program provides training, guidance, and ongoing support helping caregivers offer safer and stronger care, and in many cases, them on a pathway to licensed care childcare careers. Eliminating the program that costs $600,000 in a city with a budget and the billions does not make physical or moral sense. It sends the wrong message that programs supporting children and working families expandable.

These programs allow parents to go back to work, which directly supports our local economy. Instead of cutting support for FFN caregivers, San should be expanding exploring ways to expand these programs. We appreciate the leadership of council member Campos on this issue and look forward to working and collaborating to make San Jose better place for all care childcare providers and families. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi. My name is Veronica Mador,

and I live in District 5. I strongly support council member council memos on child care policy opportunities and urge you to fund and prioritize family, friends, and neighbors child care support in San Jose. As a mother, FFNs have been critical to my family stability. There have been times when I needed to attend an IEP meeting that ran longer than expected, stay late at work or needed help with school pickups, or staying with my three year old because his childcare provider had to close. In those moments, I have been able to rely on my neighbor, Rocio, who was here, but she had to leave because she had a couple of kids that she was taking care, who serve as an FFN caregiver in our neighborhood and whom deeply trust to care for my children.

Having trusted neighbors like Rocio has made all difference for my family. She has participated in programs through the San Jose Public Library, FFN, and continues to grow in her leadership and understanding as an FFN provider. Knowing she receives training, development, and community support has strengthened my confidence in her care. I also wanna talk about the different cross collaborations using my other hat at Sacred Heart. So I am the director of self sufficiency and supporting FFNs as well.

And there are deep collaboration and cross collaboration through the county that this are essential folks that live in our community and that should be given support and continuous help to develop their leadership. Like many working parents, especially immigrant and working communities, our schedules do not fit neatly with traditional childcare hours. FFN provides flexible, culturally grounded, and trusted care that allows parents to work, attend schools, and support their families. For families like mine, FFNs are not just convenient, they're essential. Without their support, many of us would be forced to reduce our work hours, miss critical appointments, or make impossible choices between our jobs and our children, and also how much deeply our community grows in that leadership development and community needs and supports that is needed right now.

Thank you.

Thank you. Back to the committee.

Thank you. I'm gonna go to council member Campos.

Thank you, chair. Thank you to everyone who came in today and provided public comment. Thank you to our library staff, Jill and Anne, for your continued work on on this issue, and I I really appreciate hearing from our community about their interest in continuing to support and recognize the great work that our FFN program has provided. I should have mentioned this in the previous item, but our children youth master plan and our FFN program is very unique to San Jose. I have had conversations with colleagues across the state and across the nation who are city leaders who look to us as an exemplary model of what a city who is investing in their children and families looks like.

And so when we are talking about how to be a thriving city, heard from the public comment, you know, you said it best, when children and families are strong, communities can thrive. And I've worked in this sector for about a decade and so I know that SCOE, the County Office of Ed, while they do have some funding from the state for their CCIP program, it's simply not enough. We have so much more need and demand in our community than what our state resources are able to provide us and that's where city leadership can step in and make sure that we're filling the gaps that we're hearing very clearly come across from our community. And so I look forward to continuing this work and elevating the importance of FFN with our community because it is a lifeline that stabilizes families and as we saw in the news this month San Jose is now rated the most expensive place for first time homebuyers. Childcare is that second top expense, and so anything that we can do to move the needle of making our city a more affordable place for families is really critical in this moment.

And I'll end on this because I had a meeting with SJ Arts Advocates earlier this afternoon, and one of our creative ambassadors for the city of San Jose, a parent named Jessica Gutierrez, who we provided a grant to provide artistic innovation in our city. Her family and she recently had to move out of the area because it's too expensive for a family with young children to live here. So we are hearing that this is impacting our workforce in in all sectors, and when we're seeing such a strong ripple effect, it's important that again as a council we're looking opportunity that we have to make sure that families have what they need in the city of San Jose to be resilient for today and for our future. And so with that, I will move to accept the status report on the FFN program. Thank you.

Thank you. So let's vote.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. And, I believe that is the last of our item. And therefore we go into public comments. Open forum.

We have no speaker cards.

Well, in that case, meeting adjourned.