San Jose is a charter city under California law, giving it the power to enact local ordinances that may conflict with state law, within the limits provided by the charter. The city has a council-manager government with a city manager nominated by the mayor and elected by the city council.
The San Jose City Council is made up of ten council members elected by district, and a mayor elected by the entire city. During city council meetings, the mayor presides, and all eleven members can vote on any issue. The mayor has no veto powers. Council members and the mayor are elected to four-year terms; the even-numbered district council members beginning in 1994; the mayor and the odd-numbered district council members beginning in 1996. Each council member represents approximately 100,000 constituents.
Council members and the mayor are limited to two successive terms in office, although a council member that has reached the term limit can be elected mayor, and vice versa. The council elects a vice-mayor from the members of the council at the second meeting of the year following a council election. This council member acts as mayor during the temporary absence of the mayor, but does not succeed to the mayor's office upon a vacancy.
The City Manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, and must present an annual budget for approval by the city council. When the office is vacant, the Mayor proposes a candidate for City Manager, subject to council approval. The council appoints the Manager for an indefinite term, and may at any time remove the manager, or the electorate may remove the manager through a recall election. Other city officers directly appointed by the council include the City Attorney, City Auditor, City Clerk, and Independent Police Auditor.
Santa Clara County Government CenterLike all cities and counties in the state, San Jose has representation in the state legislature.
Like all California cities except San Francisco, both the levels and the boundaries of what the city government controls are determined by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The goal of a LAFCO is to try to avoid uncontrolled urban sprawl. The Santa Clara County LAFCO has set boundaries of San Jose's "Sphere of Influence" (indicated by the blue line in the map near the top of the page) as a superset of the actual city limits (the yellow area in the map), plus parts of the surrounding unincorporated county land, where San Jose can, for example, prevent development of fringe areas to concentrate city growth closer to the city's core. The LAFCO also defines a subset of the Sphere as an 'Urban Service Area' (indicated by the red line in the map), effectively limiting development to areas where urban infrastructure (sewers, electrical service, etc.) already exists.
San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County. Accordingly, many county government facilities are located in the city, including the office of the County Executive, the Board of Supervisors, the District Attorney's Office, eight courthouses of the Superior Court, the Sheriff's Office, and the County Clerk.
State and federalSan Jose is located in the 13th, 15th, and 17th Senate Districts, represented by Democrats Jerry Hill, Jim Beall, and Bill Monning respectively, and in the 24th, 25h, 27th, and 28th Assembly districts, represented by Democrats Rich Gordon, Bob Wieckowski, Nora Campos, and Paul Fong respectively.
Federally, San Jose is split between California's 17th and 19th congressional districts, represented by Mike Honda (D–San Jose) and Zoe Lofgren (D–San Jose), respectively.
Several state and federal agencies maintain offices in San Jose. The city is the location of the Sixth District of the California Courts of Appeal. It is also home to one of three courthouses of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the other two being in Oakland and San Francisco.
CrimeCrime in San Jose has been, and continues to be lower than in other large American cities. Like most large cities crime levels have fallen significantly after rising in the 1980s. Today it is ranked as one of the safest cities in the country with a population over 500,000 people. The designation is based on crime statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft. As of 2009, the city had the second lowest violent crime rate of any city with 500,000 or more residents, second only to Honolulu. However in 2011, homicides have surged surpassing 2010's number of homicides which was 20 and in 2011 was 39.
Current mayor Chuck Reed is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
Sister citiesThe Office of Economic Development coordinates the San Jose Sister City Program which is part of Sister Cities International. As of 2008, there are seven sister cities:
Okayama, Japan (established in 1957) San José, Costa Rica (1961) Veracruz, Mexico (1975) Tainan, Taiwan (1977) Dublin, Ireland (1986) Yekaterinburg, Russia (1992) Kanpur, India (1992) Pune, India (1992) Oeiras, Portugal (1997) Pekanbaru, Indonesia (2003)
No comments:
Post a Comment