Hello District 4 Residents,
As we approach the one-year marker of our shelter-in-place health order, I want to take a moment to recognize the tremendous sacrifice you have all made and continue to make in order for all of us to make it to the other side of this pandemic.
I am optimistic that the distribution and expanded eligibility of the COVID-19 vaccine may soon bring physical, emotional and economic recovery to our community. Locally, we have much work to continue to do.
Here's a quick summary of actions taken at the February Board of Supervisors meetings.
Just as we should be paying employees who work for businesses that, quite frankly, have benefited from these orders – namely the larger chains that have remained open throughout the pandemic – we now need to bring relief to their competitors who have been closed down or are operating at limited capacity.
At the Feb. 9 Board of Supervisors meeting, my colleagues on the board approved my referral that directs County Administration to provide information to the Board and, by extension, to the public and our partner organizations, to help illustrate where stakeholder recommendations regarding best practices to address the impacts of the pandemic have been incorporated, where bi-directional planning is occurring, and if any gaps exist that require additional effort.
I believe this is a matter of transparency and a clear signal that we have heard our partners who have invested time to develop and share recommendations with the County regarding response and recovery work that will best meet the needs of our residents and local businesses.
A report about the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric/Behavioral Health Center at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center campus was presented at the Feb. 23 Board meeting. Last November, I brought together neighbors of the VMC campus to participate in a community meeting to learn more about this exciting project and ask questions. I expect to see continued engagement with surrounding neighborhoods on both facility operations and construction issues as this project goes forward, and my office will continue to work with neighbors to coordinate periodic meetings.
The Board approved five Measure A Affordable Housing projects, two of which are in District 4. The Danco Communities project on Sunol will provide 154 apartments, featuring an energy-efficient design, a children’s splash pad play area AND affordable daycare, among other community resources. The Dupont Family Apartments on West San Carlos Street will provide 141 apartments to families in our community in need of stable housing. Across all five 100% affordable developments, 566 units will be built. All will include rapid rehousing to assist homeless working families to regain permanent housing and nearly 100 units will be affordable to extremely low-income families.
In the case of the two D4 projects in this tranche, I’m glad to report that both of the developers have already held community meetings and provided opportunities for input. I’ll expect them to continue this engagement going forward and this is a huge piece in building neighbors’ support for these important projects.
Just 4 years after it was approved, Santa Clara County has committed 64% of the Measure A Bond, well ahead of pace on our 10 year/4,800 unit goal. All of these projects demonstrate the power of public-private partnerships in addressing one of our greatest social challenges. For every dollar of public funds that are invested, the County leverages another $2.90. In this most recent tranche, for example, Cisco & Apple contributed flexible private funds to 3 of the 5 newest projects to make them possible.
After some modification as to scope and scale, a majority of our board approved this past week a request Supervisor Chavez and I brought to administration to create an ordinance to extend hero pay for employees of large pharmacies and grocery stores. The circumstances that gave rise to the request for an ordinance unfortunately did not meet the legal threshold for adopting an emergency, countywide ordinance, so the ordinance will only go into effect in unincorporated Santa Clara County. That was disappointing as there are so many workers who are struggling and I had hoped this would be an opportunity to support more of them. I requested that County counsel share this ordinance with the 14 small cities in our County (the City of San Jose has already adopted its own Hero Pay Ordinance) and encourage them to adopt the same language, and as quickly as possible. This ordinance will only impact those large businesses that have remained open and, frankly, benefitted greatly from the broad shutdowns of smaller, local businesses.
This hero pay ordinance advances a significant public purpose: it seeks to compensate certain essential workers for facing increased risks and incurring increased cost during the pandemic in order to ensure they continue to have stable and reliable access to food, medicine and other necessities of daily life while also protecting those small businesses least able to withstand additional economic challenges. It doesn’t cover all employees across all sectors, but is an incremental step forward in taking care of those who go out to work while many others of us remain safely in our homes.
Nearly a year into this pandemic we continue to move toward a safe reopening of the County. We cannot move forward without each of us taking all necessary precautions and steps to protect our community -- wearing a mask, social distancing, washing/sanitizing your hands, staying home to the extent possible. I will continue to advocate for a quicker and safe reopening of our County. As I do so, please reach out to my office to let us know how we can continue to be an advocate for you.
I am on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Nextdoor and LinkedIn. There you can find resources, news and events.
As always, if you have questions, comments, and/or concerns, email me to [email protected].
I and my team are here for you.
Be well,
Susan
