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City auditor presents annual report; council hears concerns about homelessness, police response times and staffing
Summary
City Auditor Joe Royce presented the 17th annual report on city services, highlighting resident priorities such as homelessness, affordable housing and public safety; the City Council accepted the report unanimously and discussed staffing, response times and budget impacts.
City Auditor Joe Royce presented the City of San Jose’s 17th annual report on city services at the Jan. 28 council meeting, summarizing performance data across multiple city service areas and spotlighting resident priorities.
The auditor’s report compiled cost, timeliness, output and public‑opinion measures and included new survey questions aligned to the city manager’s dashboards. The report shows homelessness, affordable housing and public safety as the top resident priorities; the report also flagged staffing and timeliness problems in several departments.
At the meeting the auditor said, “I’m pleased to present our office’s seventeenth annual report on city services,” and walked the council through measures including departmental operating expenditures, staffing, police and fire response metrics, housing production and sanitation and park conditions.
Key findings cited in the report and discussed by council and staff included: - Population and budget context: San Jose’s population is reported in the auditor’s materials as roughly 950,000; departmental operating expenditures for 2023–24 were reported at about $2.0 billion and general fund expenditures around $1.5 billion. The city employed about 7,040 full‑time equivalents in 2023–24. - Homelessness and housing: The point‑in‑time census estimated about 6,300 San Jose residents experiencing homelessness in 2023; the auditor’s community survey again named addressing homelessness as residents’ top priority. The city’s housing production missed regional targets for the year and staff cautioned about timing and data‑source differences when measuring placements into housing. - Public safety and staffing: The police department reported an average of 8 minutes response time for priority 1 calls (above the 6‑minute target) and longer response times for priority 2 events; Police Chief Paul Joseph briefed the council on an ongoing recruitment and retention effort and said: “we currently have 1,029 filled positions out of an authorized 1,172,” noting recruitment challenges nationwide. - Service backlogs and blight: Code enforcement backlog, illegal dumping removal and graffiti abatement were identified as continuing pain points. Beautify SJ collected about 4,800 tons of illegally dumped material in 2023–24; graffiti removal area increased and resident satisfaction with graffiti eradication remained low.
Council discussion Mayor Matt Mahan and council members used the report as a basis for questioning department leads and for asking for additional metrics that would better align with council priorities. The mayor emphasized the primacy of homelessness as a resident concern: “homelessness continues to outpace every other priority area,” he said, and pressed staff to include the council’s net‑placement goal in future auditor reporting.
Deputy City Manager Omar Passons discussed steps to accelerate interim housing and shelter projects and cited process improvements — standardized design for interim sites and delegation of authority that has shaved weeks from project timelines. Housing Director Eric Solvan cautioned that timing differences across data sources (point‑in‑time counts, HMIS, housing production dates) can produce apparent spikes or drops in placement counts; he said the department is cleaning and reconciling data to provide clearer trend information.
Acceptance and next steps The council voted to accept the auditor’s report unanimously. Members requested additional context on metrics where the data showed significant year‑to‑year changes, asked for more clarity on shelter utilization and on the city’s approach to RVs and vehicle dwellings, and signaled the report would feed into upcoming budget and policy work for the fiscal year. Council members also asked for additional attention to 3‑1‑1 satisfaction data and to making sure new shelter and interim housing capacity is used effectively.
The city manager’s office and the auditor’s office will coordinate to include the council’s newly‑adopted net placement goals and other requested metrics in future annual reporting and the city manager’s dashboards.
