Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 3/3/16

 


  • This was a special meeting, bringing members of the community around Santa Teresa Park to meet with representatives from the County Parks, law enforcement, and the City of San Jose. Here is the flyer for the meeting. It appeared in Ash Kalra's March 2015 District 2 Newsletter. Here is the meeting agenda. Here are the goals of the meeting.
  • Attendees (regular members): Mike Boulland, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Marty Reinders, Ron Horii, Sam Drake.
  • Special guests: Chris Carson Seals (County Parks Interpreter), Teri Rogoway (Open Space Authority), Phillip Hearin (Senior County Park Ranger for Santa Teresa, based at Hellyer), Captain Ed Schroder (SJPD, Southern Division chief), Sgt. Ken Owens (Santa Clara County Sheriff Dept.), Stacie Shih (Office of San Jose District 2 Councilmember Ash Kalra).
  • Visitors and concerned neighbors included Patty Hisborn, Dianne Walters, Jackie Allen, Margaret Gandara, Max & Linda Casey, Hayley Ng, Eric & Maryssa McKinley, and Kevin Pietschker. (There were other who didn't sign in.)
  • Prior to the meeting, Ron showed a slideshow of past FOSTP activities.
  • Chris Carson Seals and Teri Rogoway came to talk about Family Fandango, which will be held on August 13, 2016 from 5 to 8 at the Bernal Ranch. Ron showed pictures of the last Fandango, which was held on 10/4/14. Chris and Teri need volunteers to help setup the event, including helping the vendors/exhibitors setup their areas. Volunteers are needed to welcome visitors and direct them to the activities. We would like to see more family and community involvement and use this event to bring the community together. Teri said the Open Space Authority would help promote the event. To contact Chris or Teri, see below.
  • Mike talked about the board members and vision for the Friends of Santa Teresa Park and welcomed visitors to the meeting. He said our goal is to get people into the park. We want to get kids into the park for healthy activities. The park used to be a haven for gangs, until the Norred and Joice-Bernal Ranches were developed and occupied, which we pushed for and supported.
  • Introductions: 
    • Phillip Hearin is the senior park ranger for Santa Teresa Park, holding the rank of sergeant. He is based at Hellyer. He goes to other community association meetings. He deals with everyone from ranchers to homeowners. 
    • Capt. Ed Schroder is the chief of the San Jose Police Department's Southern Division, which goes as far south as the Morgan Hill border. He wants to clarify jurisdictional issues, which can be confusing, and how the different agencies respond to calls.
    • Stacie Shih is the community outreach director for District 2, which extends south down the Coyote Valley to Morgan Hill, including 100K residents. She has information about city resources and contacts concerning blight, planning, and the homeless.
    • Sgt. Ken Owen has been with the sheriff's department for 20 years. His group of deputies patrol the 29 County Parks. 
  • Phillip Hearin: He has a new team of 4 rangers. They have college degrees. They have been with the parks for about 2 years. They have mountain bikes and ATV's for patrolling. They practice enforcement through presence to deter problems. They have limits on staffing, hours, and location. He is aware of the local community situation, with illegal parking and after-hours use of the parks. He works with Sgt. Owens. The rangers and the sheriffs respond to calls about Santa Teresa Spring. They take action based on what they see. Most people who cause problems are young adults who live within 2 miles of the park. They are neighbor kids who go to high school, college, or are returning home from college. There have been kids drinking on the levee. The rangers practice enforcement and education. When they catch kids causing trouble, they have them  tell their friends to spread the workd that they will get in trouble if they cause problems in the park. Phil originally talked to Mike about these issues back in November, but because of the holidays and the Super Bowl, he had to put off the meeting until today. However, he has followed up on our concerns. He has talked to the maintenance staff about changing their schedule so they are present from 7 to 2:30 during school hours. Having uniformed personnel in the park deters troublemakers. Maintenance is fully staffed. The maintenance schedule has been increased. The Hellyer visitor center is undergoing remodelling. More activities will be shifted from Hellyer to Santa Teresa. The ranger patrol schedule has been changed. Instead of 1 ranger to open and close at Santa Teresa, there will be 1-2 to open and 2 to close. There is a $250-$450 fine for vandalizing the park.
  • Sgt. Owens: He has 6 deputies in the off-season, 8 more in the summer. We are in the Bravo 9 district. 1 deputy covers the area. When they get a call, everyone responds. They address problems in the park. The area around Santa Teresa Spring has been a big concern. They try to mitigate trespassing. Recently, they responded to reports of gunfire in the park.
  • Capt. Schroder: Because of severe staffing shortages, San Jose Police officers are working overtime. The Friday-Saturday midnight shift is most impacted for having enough coverage. Burglaries and property crimes are way up. There are issues with homelessness, drugs, and alcohol. Prop. 47 reduced sentences for drug-related crimes. Drug users are committing burglaries to pay for their drugs. The captain looks at crime data to see where the crimes are occurring. He dispatches officers to those areas as a deterrant to crime and to give peace of mine to the residents. His division responds to 4 council districts, which are not aligned with police district boundaries.
  • SJPD can come to meetings to provide information on how to make neighborhoods more secure. They can give advice on securing and locking and provide neighborhood watch signs.
  • Sonia Azevedo is a civilian crime prevention specialist for SJPD. She can give classes on how to protect against burglaries and Neighborhood Watch. The city will put up Neighborhood Watch signs if enough neighbors get together and sign up for it. Burglars are often caught because of neighborhood tips. However, be safe. Don't confront burglars or go up close to take pictures. 
  • The police use license plate readers. They can look for stolen cars and cars that don't belong in a neighborhood. They can look back and see what cars were present while investigating major crimes. The police only need a few letters from a license number to identify the car.
  • The mayor has a program to register home cameras and give SJPD access to them. IP cameras can be controlled and viewed remotely. Some neighborhood associations are looking for grants to get cameras. SJPD camera registration: http://www.sjpd.org/_forms/CameraRegistrationFAQs.asp
  • One of the neighbors said that kids can have been hopping over the sound wall by the railroad tracks on Bernal Road. Capt. Schroder said he can direct patrols to take a look.
  • Phillip Hearin: The solar-powered lights around Santa Teresa Spring are not working. The problem is that the control box for the lights is no longer made. They are looking at ways to get them working again. They looked into running power lines to the lights. It would cost $250K to run power there, as well as monthly charges for power. 
  • Teenagers park on Heaton Moor and walk into thepark after hours. Being in the park after hours is an ordinance violation, not a crime, so it has low priority. Adults can get cited for alcohol use in the park. If minors are caught using alcohol, their parents or a related adault will be called to pick them up.
  • For calling regarding problems at Santa Teresa Spring. use 400 Manila Drive as the address, or use the address of the ranch, 380 Manila Drive, and say the problem is at Santa Teresa Spring. Call the County Communications number: 408-299-2311. There were 6 calls in January. Even though it's on county property, SJPD can cover the park, but it's not their highest priority.
  • One of the neighbors said that parking on Manila Drive on busy days is an issue. She was concerned about more events at Santa Teresa drawing more crowds. There was supposed to be a parking lot across from Bernal School, but it's not being built in the near future. Cars are parking on the unpaved side of the road next to the entrance to the spring. Phil said the rangers cited people parking on the unpaved part of Manila Drive, but most were neighbors, and it's not posted and not illegal to park there. Mike said that the Friends of Santa Teresa Park are working with the County Parks to extend the trail from the spring to Manila Way and move the trail entrance there, where there's more street parking.
  • Phil said that the events being planned for Santa Teresa are in the park as a whole, not necessarily all at the Bernal Ranch. The target audience is within 5-10 miles of the park.
  • Stacie said that SJPD has a staffing shortage. They are trying to get officers back. With the shortages, they depend on residents to be their eyes and ears. Traffic engineers watch traffic and look at calming measures, like speed bumps, if necessary.
  • There have been some attempted break-ins in the neighborhood. Someone fired shots at the spring, unloading a clip.
  • Sam talked about the bright parking lot lights being left on at night at the Muriel Wright Center, where the park sheriff patrols are headquartered. Since it's no longer a correctional facility, he asked why the lights needed to be on all night and why did they need to be so bright. Sgt. Owens said that the center is occupied 24 hours a day. People live up there. They need to be able to see their property and vehicles. However, people from the county were up at Muriel Wright looking for ways to cut costs, so they might decide to reduce the lighting.
  • Thanks to MoonBean's Coffee at Plaza de Santa Teresa for donating the coffee for the meeting.
  • Contacts (see here for the list):
    • Chris Carson Seals (County Parks Interpreter): 408-918-7772
    • Teri Rogoway (Open Space Authority): 408-224-7476
    • Janet Hawks (Deputy Director, Santa Clara County Parks, send comments about the parks): Janet.Hawks@prk.sccgov.org
    • Captain Ed Schroder (SJPD): 408-277-4631
    • Sgt. Ken Owens (Santa Clara County Sheriff Dept.): 408-299-2311
    • Stacie Shih (Office of San Jose District 2 Councilmember Ash Kalra): 408-535-4925
    • San Jose PD crime prevention/video camera registration: 408-277-4133. http://www.sjpd.org/BFO/Community/Crimeprev/
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   Created 3/7/16  by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park