Santa Clara County Government Digest

Last year, dozens of cities around the Bay Area missed the deadline to come up with a state-approved "housing element" — a plan the state requires cities to submit every eight years showing how they will accommodate their share of the 2.5 million homes that California must build by 2031.

There’s so little data available, it’s impossible to even tell if several of California’s largest homelessness programs are working, according to a statewide audit released Tuesday.

Across the country, cities have begun experimenting with artificial intelligence to map potholes, reduce traffic and fight wildfires. In San Jose, officials are now harnessing the rapidly evolving technology with another goal in mind: detecting homeless encampments.

Not filling open positions in state government, cutting a school facilities program and several climate initiatives, delaying funding for public transit — these are some of the first steps that California officials plan to take to deal with a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Tenants in many new privately owned, low-income units will be protected from double-digit increases. So will some in existing units, after a state committee on affordable housing imposed a rent cap.

According to emails obtained by CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang in response to a public records request, a range of employers have been trying to figure out if they must pay $20 ever since the law was signed late last September.

Evictions have exacerbated homelessness nationwide, increasing the rate of homeless infants and toddlers. Most of those children are not enrolled in early education programs.

Disputes between insurers and providers can lead to entire hospital systems suddenly leaving the plans.

Last weekend, President Biden signed a package of bills that included $205 million in construction funding for Sites Reservoir, a proposed $4.5 billion project planned for the rolling ranchlands  west of the town of Maxwell, about 70 miles north of Sacramento.

Sanborn expansion
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of a plot of land in unincorporated Saratoga that would expand Sanborn County Park.
The acquisition of the 103-acre property off Congress Springs Road will allow for the creation of a new publicly accessible trail that will lead to a historic area of the park, according to a March 11 press release from Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian's office.
“This is an exciting opportunity to expand a beloved park,” Simitian said. “Not only will we be preserving open space, but folks will have a new opportunity to access a piece of our county’s history as well as enjoy the outdoors.”
The action also comes after the board of supervisors voted in late January to restrict parking on Black Road near the entrance to the John Nicholas Trailhead at Sanborn County Park to improve traffic congestion.
Sanborn County Park, which is open to the public for camping, hiking and picnicking, is located just north of Skyline Boulevard.
Local Coca-Cola scholar
Saratoga High School senior Zeyneb Kaya was named a national 2024 Coca-Cola scholar, according to a press release from the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District.
Kaya will receive a $20,000 scholarship and an invitation to attend the Coca-Cola Scholars Weekend in Atlanta this April. Selected from over 100,000 other applicants, Kaya will join the cohort of 150 Coca-Cola scholars across the country this year who have been recognized and awarded thousands of dollars in scholarship money. Senior Brad Ma was also selected as a finalist for the competition this year.
Kaya was previously named a 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Scholar for an algorithm she designed that sought to improve language processing models for artificial intelligence that could aid in the preservation of endangered languages.

California will miss its goals unless it can increase emission reductions threefold, according to a new study.

“Street releases” have resumed after the nonprofit that operated a migrant welcome center announced its “finite resources have been stretched to the limit.”

State officials determined that Rancho Palos Verdes can utilize an already-established state of emergency to expedite landslide stabilization efforts as the crisis escalates.

Contrary to prior predictions, San Jose will not see a budget shortfall this upcoming fiscal year. The city is in better financial shape than expected for the 2024-25 budget.

The state’s environmental tool skews which communities are designated as disadvantaged, researchers say. Some immigrant neighborhoods could be left out, while other groups are overrepresented.

After months of negotiations, the city and the Milpitas Professional and Technical Group—made up of office and recreation services assistants, enforcement officers, and accounting techs—have forged a new agreement.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to make the Saratoga Library an official passport facility, part of a broader effort to offer passport services at the Milpitas, Cupertino and Los Altos libraries.

The Los Gatos Town Council set its priorities for the next two years—including prudent financial management, safety, quality of life and traffic and transportation—at a special council meeting on Feb. 13.

Voters in Santa Clara will decide in March if they want to continue electing their police chief and city clerk or change the process.

Ten conservation groups filed an intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to list western wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

A study in the latest issue of Nature Communications helps explain why there is more unconscious, or implicit, racial bias in some cities than others.

The Los Altos City Council has denied Councilmember Lynette Lee Eng’s request to go on a $3,000 city-funded trip to a conference in Washington, D.C.

A first-in-the-nation council will set work rules in the state’s fast food industry, but can labor and business agree?

Among growing concern over copper wire thefts, L.A. City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Traci Park proposed a task force anchored by the LAPD.

The numbers and letters on your car can reveal more than you think.

Fast food lives in a consumer sweet spot: demand, convenience and relative affordability. And this pay hike—equal to minimum wage increases during the past five years—will create grand economic unknowns.

The swing from a $100 billion surplus to a deficit somewhere between $38 and $68 billion in just two years illustrates the volatility of California’s tax system.

A California judge says a nearly 65-year-old law does not give the state permission to borrow the billions of dollars it would need to build a large water project.

Proposed California legislation that would ban tackle football for kids under 12 had gained momentum until Gov. Gavin Newsom made it clear he’d veto the bill.

A multi-year, $750 million California program aimed at doing away with homeless encampments has had mixed results. Local leaders say ongoing funding is needed.

California’s projected budget deficit of close to $38 billion likely means some cuts are coming. Among them, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed ending the California State Park Adventure Pass, which offers free access to some state parks for fourth graders.

Michel Moore, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, announced he will resign. The departure of Moore, who has been in the job since 2018, will spur the appointment of an interim chief and a nationwide search for his replacement, according to Mayor Karen Bass.