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- 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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