Safe Routes to School Palo Alto
 

Proposed City Budget Cuts &
Safe Routes to School

 

City Manager Jim Keene has released proposed budget cuts. The City Manager's report can be found at: Preview of the City Manager's Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2011

 

In summary, the proposed cuts would affect school commuting children in Palo Alto as follows:

  • Eliminate ALL adult crossing guards city-wide; 29 adult crossing guards, $345,000. See list of crossing guarded intersections and schools they serve
  • Eliminate the ENTIRE Police Department Traffic Team; five full-time police officer positions, $894,000.

         The Traffic Team provides regular enforcement and a visible presence on the miles of school routes between guarded intersections, particularly on known trouble spots during school commute times. They provide preventive enforcement on all city streets throughout the day. If the Traffic Team were eliminated, their responsibilities would be redistributed to regular patrol teams whose primary job is to respond to all calls, prioritizing 911 emergency assignments. This will make preventive enforcement on school commute routes a much lower priority. Currently, the Traffic Team regularly fills in for regular patrol when needed. Without the Traffic Team, PAPD will provide "no guarantee" that they will be able to provide preventive enforcement during school commute times. (For more information, see PAPD Traffic Team

Only the police can enforce vehicle code on public streets that make up the city’s school commute routes. These two proposed cuts would completely eliminate the enforcement arm of our Safe Routes to School Partnership with the city.

Act NOW!

 

The latest budget proposal outlines roughly $3 million more cuts than will be necessary to close the $8.3 million budget gap. Strong advocacy right now may save critical programs and positions that support our efforts to keep school commuting children safe.

  1. Write a letter
    A sample letter and/or talking points is available at Sample Letter.

    Send your letters to:
    City Council: City.Council@CityofPaloAlto.org

    The editors of local papers:
  2. Speak at the Monday, June 21, 7pm City Council Meeting
    Council Chambers, City Hall

    On June 21st, you can speak to all nine members of City Council in support of Finance Committee’s May 18th recommendation to reinstate funding for four of five PAPD Traffic Team Members and the crossing guards. The outcomes of this meeting will inform City Council’s final decision. It is important that we have a strong presence at this meeting because Finance Committee is made up of only four of the nine City Council members. They did not vote unanimously. The votes were 3:1 in favor of both recommendations. To retain the funding we need, we must get a MINIMUM of five Council votes, so this Council meeting is very important.

    A complete list of budget meetings and hearings

  3. Ask others to write letters.

Thank you for supporting safe school commutes for PAUSD children.-- Palo Alto Council of PTAs Traffic Safety Committee